Cards
by the7joker7
Summary: Egyptian men have become enamored by the latest way to gamble. But there's one peasant who refuses to respond to gender barriers.
1. A Man's Game

Cards

Summary: Egyptian men have become enamored by the latest way to gamble. But there's one peasant who refuses to respond to gender barriers.

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Well, I just recently wrapped up a three part, 150k word epic story that took five or six years to finish, so I decided I wanted to have some fun with something easier. So I'm going back to the well with ancient Egyptian stories.

This story is loosely inspired by the 1998 film Rounders. 'Cards' is an adaptation of the modern day Texas Hold 'Em poker game. And Teana was a minor character in a YuGiOh video game that basically serves as an AE carnation of Anzu, who I like to use in my stories.

I've rated this story T for some adult situations, language, and themes.

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Chapter One: A Man's Game

_One day, the men of the world will learn to take women seriously. One day, they'll respect us._

_But until then, I'll gladly keep taking advantage of them._

"Aw, you gotta be kidding," Seth spat, throwing his two slips of parchment back across the circular wooden table and looking away. "You know you got lucky there, right?"

"Lucky gold is the same as any other gold," Horus replied, reaching forward and grabbing two short stacks of tiny golden coins. He placed them in front of him on the table.

"Yes, but you lose lucky gold very quickly after obtaining it," Seth said. "If I were you, I'd go home and place your lucky gold in a secret place, so it can't run off."

"I think my lucky gold will stay here, and perhaps impart some of it's luck onto me for the rest of the game," Horus said, grabbing his wooden cup and taking a swig out of it.

Bes waved his hand toward the table and everyone immediately threw their own pair of parchment slips into the pile in front of him. He scooped them up into a neat, uniform stack and started to shuffle them around.

Horus turned around and looked at the restaurant behind them. About a dozen wooden tables, like theirs, scattered around the main portion of the room, with a countertop along the far wall, which protected a rack of small barrels and containers. Finally, the place was starting to empty out, people finishing their lunches.

"Alright, deal it," Seth said. Everyone grabbed a single gold fleck from their piles in front of them and tossed them into the middle. "Ptah, you've got the double."

"Course I do," Ptah replied, reaching down to grab another piece of gold and throwing it into the middle.

A young girl made her way into the restaurant. Short brown hair that didn't quite reach her shoulders and an impressively large chest. Her simple cloth gown was unevenly cut around the bottom and frayed, worn, and ripped in several places. She looked exhausted, dirty, and beat down, a dismayed frown on her face. She shuffled over to a table near the men and sat down silently, making no motion towards the employees behind the bar.

"Alright, here we go," Bes said, flicking a parchment slip from the top of the stack to each person around the table in turn, including himself, then going back around to give each person a second. Everyone peaked at their slips without showing them to the others.

"Alright. Pass," Amun said, pointing to his left.

"Pass it along," Seth said.

"Pass," Horus chimed in.

"Yeah I'll pass," Ptah agreed.

"Well this is just boring," Bes grunted. "Pass." With that, he took one slip off the top of the pack, set it aside, then took the next three and set them face up on the middle of the table.

Everyone immediately looked the three over. Each card contained a crude drawing of a human figure in the middle, and small text on both the top and bottom. The first read 'Pyramid General', the second 'Ankh Artist' and the final 'Pyramid Pharaoh'.

Pass." Amun scratched his forehead a few times.

"I'll put in five," Seth said, picking up five of the tiny golden pieces and putting them in the center.

"Out," Horus said immediately, tossing his two parchment slips back to Bes.

"So long." Ptah threw his two back to Bes as well.

"Count me out," Bes said, putting his two slips back onto the deck.

"Enjoy your free win," Amun said, flicking his slips over to Bes. Seth reached forward and grabbed all the coins in the middle of the table, pulling them over to his table.

"I will, thank you," Seth replied. "On a day like this, every win is a big win."

"Excuse me, sirs."

The table of men turned around to look at the girl who had just taken a seat next to them. She was looking at the five, hands folded in front of her on the table.

"Can we help you?" Bes asked, shuffling the deck of slips around in his hands.

"Uh...well, this is going to sound weird," the girl said, eyes downcast. "Can I...join your game?"

Everyone at the table was silent for a few moments, then Horus sniggered.

"This some kind of joke?" Horus asked. "Who put you up to this? Panhsj?"

"N-no one...I'm serious," the girl said meekly, shrinking away from the table. "F-forget it, sorry I asked."

"Wait," Ptah said suddenly, holding his hand toward Bes. "I'm curious now. What's your story?"

"Story?" The girl repeated, looking back over at the table and brushing her hair out of her eyes.

"Girl," Ptah said condescendingly. "You wander in here, you're clearly on the low end of the peasant scale and look like you don't have a deben to your name, you go up to a table of men who you've never met before, and you ask to join our card game. You have to have a story. Spill it."

The girl sighed. "It's...it's my father. It's a long story, but I'll just...skip to the important part, if I don't come home tonight with a decent amount of gold, he's gonna beat the hell out of me."

"Then go run some errands for the merchants in the market," Amun suggested. "Come on, deal em."

"I-I've tried that." The girl clenched her fists until her knuckles had turned white. "I've...I've been from one end of Cairo to the other, doing everything I could...doing things I...I never thought I'd do, everything I could find and...and I'm not close."

"Go turn some tricks downtown, you'll be there in no time," Horus said dismissively. "Now who has the double?"

"Horus! Horus, that's awful," Bes chided. "Sorry, forgive our friend, he's socially inept."

"Don't tell me you're actually considering this," Amun said exasperatedly. "Come on, the deck is going cold."

"I didn't say I was considering it," Bes replied. "But you don't tell a girl you don't know she should go turn tricks."

"Unless you know she's a prostitute," Ptah said.

"Girl, you a prostitute?" Bes said, turning to her. She shook her head. "See? Come on, that's just rude."

"I've got until sundown to make good," she said, shaking her head. "If there was any other way for me to do it, I'd do it, but...this is the only way. I have to try."

Horus looked around at the table. "The other fishermen will never let me hear the end of it if they hear I played cards, for gold, with a woman."

"Then don't tell them," Ptah said, playing with his little pieces of gold in front of him. "You know what? Why not? Give her a chance."

"Girl, pull up a chair," Bes called out, pointing at her.

"Hold on now," Amun said, grabbing Bes's arm and pulling it down. "No, don't pull up a chair. I'm not playing cards with a female." He looked at her out of the corner of his eye. "Besides, she looks like a section one, I'd feel bad if I took her money."

"Sounds like we're tied," Ptah said, looking at Seth. "Well?"

"Hey, since when is this majority rule?" Horus said. "I'm not playing with a woman and that's that."

"Horus, stop being a baby," Seth spat, turning to look at the girl. He took in a deep breath, looking her over. "How much do you have?"

She looked down at the floor. "Twenty five debens," she said quietly.

"Gold?" He asked. She nodded her head. "What do you need?"

"A lot more," she muttered. "I-I'm not going to ask you guys to just give me what I need. It's too much, it wouldn't be right. I just want a chance to play for it."

Seth looked around the restaurant for a moment. "Two things. First, don't tell anyone we let a girl play cards with us. It looks bad. Second, we're giving you a chance, but that's it. So if you lose everything, too bad. I don't wanna hear a sob story about how you're gonna get beaten tonight on your way out, just leave. We're giving you a chance, and that's all we're giving you."

"Of course," she said, getting up off her chair. She winced as her bare feet hit the floor, burns on her feet causing discomfort on contact with anything.

"You know how to play?" Ptah asked.

"My dad plays it sometimes, I watch," she replied.

"Oh, she watches her dad play it sometimes," Horus said sarcastically. Well it's another twenty-five gold debens for us. Fine, she can play, but this is a joke."

"Everyone puts in one deben at the start of each hand," Bes said to the girl as she sat down. "We have a double spot that rotates around every hand, that person has to put in two. Maximum of two raises per rotation, raises can be either five or ten debens."

She pulled the empty chair out and sat down in it, putting her elbows on the edge of the table. Slowly, she reached down to the pouch in front of her gown, and pulled out a small sack with a thin piece of rope tying the neck closed. She pulled the string off and dumped a small mound of gold in front of her.

"I think it's...commendable," Seth said, looking at her. "In your position, most people would turn to pickpocketing."

She shook her head. "Wouldn't be right. I'd deserve a beating if I did that."

"See? She's noble!" Bes said, putting the parchment stack down in front of him. Everyone placed their initial wager into the middle. "By the way, what's your name?"

"Husn," she replied, smiling as Bes started to deal the cards out.

_Husn. To these guys, I'm Husn. Of course, to the guys down by the dock on the river, I'm Hathor. To the blacksmiths at the bar three blocks south of here, I'm Bast. To the retired soldiers who like to meet at the arthouse across town, I'm Phoenix. But to my friends. To the people I care about. To the people who are worth knowing who I really am, I'm Teana._

_That wasn't the first lie I told though. I have no problem stealing. I'm doing it right now, and these guys don't even know it yet. I'm stealing from these five guys. I may as well just walk over to this table and grab a handful of debens. But before you judge me, the only reason that this is considered stealing is that these guys aren't taking me seriously. Their loss._

_My name is Teana, and I'm just an Egyptian peasant woman playing a man's game. We call it, quite simply, 'cards'._

After Bes sent the cards out, everyone reached forward to peek at their own. Teana pried the corner of her cards up to check what she had. Djed - Vizier and Djed - God.

"Alright, Seth, you're up," Bes said, pointing at Seth.

"I'll pass."

_Cards started about ten years ago. A group of bandits from up north came up with it and played it amongst themselves. Then they all got busted and went to prison. They kept playing it, and the guards figured it out and started playing it themselves. The guards spread it around to blacksmiths, farmers, artists, teachers...it caught on like wildfire. Egyptians love gambling._

_You play the game with a deck of fifty-two slips of parchment, they're the cards. There are thirteen different card values, based on the Egyptian pyramid of power. The higher the rank of the card, the more valuable it is. It goes Peasant, Farmer, Soldier, Artist, Teacher, Priest, General, Nobleman, Vizier, Prince, Queen, Pharaoh, God._

_There are four of each card value in a deck, and each card has one of four types associated with it. You have Pyramid, Ankh, Djed, and Was. So each deck has exactly one Pyramid Priest, one Djed Prince, one Was General, and so on. Each card deck is made with thick parchment, and each card looks identical from the back. Homemade decks don't cut it here._

"Alright, full round of passes..." Bes said, putting one card to the side before placing three on the center of the table.

Was God, Djed Queen, Djed Farmer.

"Pass," Seth said quickly.

Horus looked around the table for a moment. "Well, fine, I guess it's up to me. Five." He picked up a stack of five piece of gold and put them in the middle."

Immediately, Ptah, Bes, and Amun conked out in turn, leaving action to Teana. She looked down at the table again, exhaled deeply, then pushed five of her own gold pieces into the middle. "I'll match it."

"I like it. Aggressive on the first hand," Seth said, smirking at Teana. "But I'll skip. I'm out." He threw his cards over to Bes.

Bes discarded another card to the side, then placed a fourth face up on the middle of the table. Djed Teacher.

"Just you and me, girl," Horus said roughly. "And you don't belong here. I'm putting in ten."

"Whooh!" Bes called out as Horus put his gold into the middle. "Pressuring the girl, for shame Horus!"

"Your wife would not be happy to see you making such wild wagers," Ptah joked.

"My wife isn't happy that I play cards for gold in the first place, that ship has sailed," Horus replied tartily.

"Match," Teana said quietly, pushing ten golden pieces to the table center, slowly and reluctantly, as everyone immediately fell silent.

"Well, damn," Seth said under his breath. "See, I knew it was a good idea to let her in the game! Look how exciting things have gotten."

_Each person in the game gets two cards to start. These cards belong to that person alone. Then after a round of betting, three cards get put in the center of the table. These cards belong to everyone. Another round of betting, and a fourth card comes out. Another betting round, a fifth card, another betting round, and then we find out who came out on top._

_The goal is for each person to make the best five card group possible, using their two cards and any three cards in the center of the table. Good hands include groups of values, like having two princes or two farmers. Even better is two groups of two, like having two princes and two farmers. There's also three of a group, a trio matched with a pair, and four of a group._

_Also mixed in there are runs of five, which is when you build a five card group of ascending values. Like, Artist-Teacher-Priest-General-Nobleman. Then you have a type-match, which is when you can get five cards all of the same type, like five pyramids. Then, of course, you have the running type-match, which combines the two. In the event of a tie, values decide the winner._

"Okay, fifth card," Bes announced, discarding another and placing a fifth on the table center. Pyramid Vizier.

Horus smirked. "Dear, please remember that I, by no means, want you to get beaten by your father tonight, but I have to do this." He picked up another ten gold pieces and threw them into the middle. "Nine, to push you all-in. You should have bailed on this hand as soon as I threw that five in. And now you're chasing the pot because you feel like you don't have a choice. A common mistake made by the young player, and perhaps proof that this game is meant to be played by men."

Teana sighed, folding her arms in front of her, looking at the remaining nine pieces in front of her. She let her hand prop her head up as she glumly looked down.

"You might yet make a comeback with nine pieces left. Toss them," Horus insisted, pointing at Bes. "Come on now, don't resign yourself to your fate because you feel committed to the pot. It's not too late to get out."

_The game is particularly fascinating because, not only can each player see their own groups, they can see most of everyone else's groups because most of the cards are shown in the center of the table. I can look at the table cards and know what groups are possible. For instance, there's no pair on the table, so nobody has four of a group. There aren't three of the same type, so nobody has a type-match._

_You can also watch reactions and betting strategies with each card that comes, and figure out what someone has. If the first three cards come out onto the table, and those three cards could make a run, and someone bets heavily, they might have a run of five. Or maybe they're trying to trick you into thinking they do. That's the beauty of the game._

_It's a beautiful, wonderful game. Unless dice games, which are entirely luck, there's a massive amount of skill involved in cards. Hiding your emotions, disguising your bet strategies, reading group possibilities and probabilities...you have to be a genius to master this game. And that's just it. Luck has nothing to do with it. The skilled players are the ones who win._

_Of course, in this instance, I don't even need skill, because this moron may as well be begging me to get out of the hand._

"Match," Teana said, shoving the remaining gold in front of her into the center of the table and flipping her cards over, placing them in the center of the table. "Two groups of two, Gods and Viziers."

Horus's face fell as he saw her two cards, then he indignantly looked around the room.

"Well?" Bes said, pointing at Horus's two cards.

Horus scowled, then pushed his two cards over to Bes without revealing them.

"Oh, Ra, you didn't have anything!" Ptah cried out as Teana reached forward to bring the pot towards her, scooping the stack of gold over to in front of her. "You had trash! Nothing!"

"I didn't say that!" Horus hissed. "Just...deal."

"Oh, you went twenty-four debens into a pot with nothing!" Ptah clapped his hand to his forehead. "That was great! You deserved that, you stupid oaf. Trying to bully this poor girl around when you're holding nothing."

"Shut up, I didn't say I had nothing!" Horus motioned to Bes.

"I think you had nothing," Bes said as he shuffled the cards.

_They think he had nothing. I know he had nothing. A novice would have been scared into getting out of the hand and letting him take a free win, and he thinks I'm a novice, so I suppose it's no surprise. Meanwhile, I couldn't have asked for a better first hand. My gold stack is now respectable, and everyone at the table is so focused on Horus trying to bully me, that they didn't notice how well I played that hand._

_And that's the skill of the game. My reactions, my emotions, my betting, it all convinced Horus I had nothing. And I suckered him in all the way. I'm playing the game in ways these guys can't even fathom. I'm so far ahead of them, they don't even realize I'm ahead of them._

_So yes, I'm pretty much stealing. But there's a saying about a fool and his gold._

.

"The definition of beginners' luck," Amun said smugly, looking at Teana. "Wins a big first hand, and now you've been sitting there for the last ten. Just sitting there, doing nothing except bleeding to death, one pre-card bet at a time."

"You guys, I mean...should I just not get married?" Ptah asked, holding his hand out towards the table. "It seems to me that, once you get married, you start hating women, that's what I'm getting from this. You guys are busting on this poor girl, and why? What's she doing that's so bad? Is this just a generic, I hate all females thing?"

"Just play," Amun said dryly. The first three table cards had been dealt. A teacher, priest, and vizier.

"Pass," Ptah said quickly.

"Pass it on," Bes followed up.

"Put in ten," Amun announced, pushing ten of his gold pieces into the middle.

"Oh boy, here we go." Horus stood up from the table. "I'm getting another beer, if it comes around to me before I get back just get me out of the hand."

"What Horus is trying to say, is that you suck at hiding your run of five," Seth mocked. "Alright, let's all just fold and-"

"Match and put in ten," Teana said quietly, placing twenty gold pieces into the middle quickly.

The table went dead silent at this, everyone staring at Teana. Quickly, everyone folded out of the hand until it got back to Amun. Amun just sat there, staring unblinkingly at Teana.

"Husn, are you sure-"

"Oh geez, was that not a legal move?" Teana gasped, reaching her hands towards the middle. "I'm so sorry, I'll-"

"Leave the gold," Bes instructed. "The move is legal. Amun."

"Well, of course, as soon as I say something you...get a straight." He threw his cards over towards Bes, who shuffled them back into the deck. "All yours."

Teana reached forward and pulled the small group of gold towards her, then immediately threw her cards over to Bes.

"So you had the run of five?" Amun asked as Bes shuffled the cards around.

"Huh?" Teana turned to look dimly at Amun.

"You had the run of five, right?" Amun glanced over at Bes shuffling the deck.

"Uh...um..." Teana looked around, eyes darting along the floor. "I don't remember."

"What?" Amun deadpanned. "It's a simple question, did you have the general and nobleman or not?"

"I'm really sorry, I forget!" Teana cried, a couple tears welling up in the inside corner of her eyes. "I'm..I'm under a-"

"You forget?" Amun roared, standing up from the table. "You were looking at the cards just a moment ago, and you forgot what you had?"

Teana cowered away from him, putting her hands over her head and shying away. "I'm sorry! I'm sorry!"

"Amun!" Ptah cried. "You need a break or something? What's wrong with you?"

Amun looked around, then took a deep breath and sat back down. "No, I'm sorry, Husn. I...I shouldn't have shouted. I'm sorry."

Teana nodded quickly, then slowly got back into a straight sitting position. "I...I can't remember what I had. I'm really sorry."

"No, it's fine. Not a big deal, don't worry about it." Amun waved his hand at her. "I just...I get caught up in the cards."

"I...I don't remember," Teana repeated as she placed two debens in the center of the table. "You know, I...I think I did, actually. General and nobleman, yeah."

_I had a peasant and a prince. I had nothing. I had trash. But these guys don't need to know that. The less they know about how I play, the better._

.

"I'm starting to like this girl!" Ptah said enthusiastically.

"I never wanna see her again," Horus said sourly.

"She hides, and lays quietly in waiting for hand after hand after hand, and then she springs on us at the opportune moment!" Ptah reached over and patted her shoulder. "She knows how to play!"

Seth looked out one of the open doors, flattening his hair. "Dinner crowd will be here in a bit."

Bes dealt out new cards to everyone after the initial bets were placed.

"Alright," Seth said, reaching down towards his gold. "I'll bet five."

Teana peaked down at her cards. Pyramids. A Priest and a Nobleman.

"I'm out," Horus said, throwing his cards over to Bes.

"I'll match it," Ptah decided, putting five gold pieces in the middle.

"Not for me," Bes decided, sticking his own cards back into the deck.

Amun sighed. "Well, it's late." He stuck five gold pieces into the center. "Why not?"

"I'm in," Teana said, pushing her wager to the table middle.

"Alright! Four bets. Looks like we've got an interesting hand for once." Bes discarded a card, then pulled out three and set them on the table.

Two gods and a Vizier. Bes gave a low whistle. "Well, that's a pretty trio. Seth?"

Seth looked at the three cards. "Wager ten," he said, pushing a stack of golden flecks to the pot.

Ptah snorted. "You got a god, don't you?" He threw his cards back to Bes. "I'm out."

Amun bit his lower lip, then picked up ten coins and bet them. "I'm up for a raise anyway, why not?"

"Match and wager ten," Teana immediately announced, every eye at the table on her as she pushed her twenty debens to the center, just above the table cards.

"Damn this girl," Seth grunted, tossing his cards up to Bes. "She's got gods. Or a god and a ten."

Amun looked at Teana, then down at his gold stack, then at his cards. He snarled, then roughly discarded the cards over to Bes, giving a frustrated grunt as he did so.

"Keep your cards," Amun insisted as Teana reached over towards the gold. She froze mid-grab, looking at Amun in fear.

Casually, Teana picked them up and flopped them into the center of the table face up, then scooped the gold towards her, revealing her ultimately useless hand.

Amun gaped at them for a second, then looked at Teana. "Y-you..."

"Oh, Ra, she had nothing!" Horus yelped, looking the five cards on the table over. "Nothing! Worse than nothing, these cards are as worthless as they come!"

"You bet on a priest and a nobleman? Twice?" Amun sputtered as Teana stood up.

"You know what, I changed my mind." Horus pointed at Amun. "His face when he saw those cards were worth it. You're great, Husn. That was fantastic."

"I've never seen you this mad," Ptah said, smiling. "That was a great play."

"Thanks," Teana replied quietly. "I have to go, it's getting late." She started to scoop her gold into her little sack.

"Yeah sure, kick me in the nuts and bolt," Amun said bitterly.

"Don't listen to him, he's a baby," Bes said, shuffling the deck. "Hey, don't listen to him, really. That was fun. You know what, if you ever find yourself in need of quick money, you're welcome back at this table. Just don't tell anyone."

"Yeah," Horus said reluctantly. "By then you'll run out of luck and I can get my gold back."

Teana gave a small smile after frantically getting all of the gold into her sack, then shoving it back into her front pouch. "I really do appreciate this opportunity." She bowed low. "I'm grateful for what you've done for me."

"Hey, you did it. Pat yourself on the back," Seth pointed at her. "Have a good evening Husn."

Teana turned and walked away. "I have to hurry home, or my father will beat me anyway."

_In case you haven't figured it out yet, there's no father. My father died ten years ago. And if he was here, he certainly wouldn't beat me. But the story works more often than not._

_There's no father. There's no mother, either, she's long gone too. I don't need gold to get out of a beating. This is my life. This is how I pay for life. And not just for myself. Some people fish. Some people make weapons. Some join the army. Some build. But me, I play cards._

.

Wincing, Teana skipped across the sands over the open plain, towards a long row of simple huts. She saw a boy, about her age, leaning against one of the huts and watching her run up. He had short black hair and a pair of white leggings on with some straw sandals.

_This is section six, the only home I've ever known. It's a dump, but there are five sections that are even worse, so I'm not complaining. Besides, at least I'm in good company._

"Hey!" Teana cried out, running towards him.

"You worked solo today?" He said wryly as she came up next to him. "True dedication."

"Just because your partners abandon you doesn't mean you can take a day off," Teana replied, face contorting in a grimace of pain. "I'm never gonna get used to this."

"Here," he said, reaching underneath his robes and pulling out a smaller pair of straw sandals. "These are yours."

"Oh, thanks," she said as she grabbed them. "You break into my house now and steal my sandals?" She quickly slipped them onto her feet. "That's not creepy at all."

"No, it's considerate," he replied. "Aren't you feeling better now that I did?" He shook his head. "Just wear them next time, nobody is going to notice or care."

"Yes they will," Teana insisted, slowly walking past the hut the boy was leaning on and going behind it, the boy following right behind her. "Have you ever been to section one? They're all barefoot. Every single one. And that's my character. A section one peasant girl with an abusive father."

"Is it worth the pain?" he asked, raising his hands up behind his head.

Teana rolled her eyes. "You don't get it, Ramses. I don't have a choice, but you don't get that because you have testicles."

"Yes I do," Ramses replied, reaching down to cup his crotch area. "And they're splendid."

_This dork is Ramses, my oldest friend. We sort of bonded over our mutual lack of parents and skill at cards. He's another career card player. Covers the cost of rent, food, taxes, and everything else with winnings. He's a bit of a wild card, but he's a good guy._

"So how'd you do?" Ramses asked, walking up next to her as she went around the back of the hut.

"Usual," she replied, grabbing her sack of gold and tossing it at Ramses. He caught it, then held it out in his palm, moving it up and down to feel the weight.

"Feels like...ninety?" He said slowly.

"Eight seven, you're getting good with that," she said, taking the bag back.

"That's kinda anti-climatic," he said indifferently.

"Well I really only won three significant hands," Teana said, shrugging, walking over to a hole in the ground with a wooden ladder leading downwards.

"Three? You played half the day and won three hands?" Ramses raised an eyebrow as he followed her. "Are you losing your edge?"

"No. It's strategy." She bent down, turned around, then put her feet through the hole and made her way downwards.

"Strategy? What are you talking about? In the old days you would have won fifteen hands and walked home with every deben those guys had." Ramses followed her down into the hole.

"This isn't the old days," Teana countered patiently, stepping off the ladder into a small underground chamber, containing only a single simple wooden door. "Things are different now. If I clean them out, they figure out that I'm an expert and I never play with them again."

"So what? There's games going on everywhere, and new ones start every day." Ramses stepped off next to her.

"Once again, you don't get it. And once again it's because you have testicles." Teana sighed, then pointed at her chest area. "I have these now. And they're massive!"

"Yeah, they...they are nice," Ramses admitted, nodding. "I mean, I didn't wanna say anything, but since you brought it up...they're spectacular."

"I can't disguise myself as a boy anymore." She smiled to herself, looking up at the ceiling of the underground chamber. "Those days are gone, and now games that will let me play are a precious commodity. I need to make the other players like me, and they won't if I clean them out."

Ramses looked her up and down. "Well, maybe with the right amount of padding-"

"I've tried, okay?" Teana said. "Nothing works. Nothing that would convince anyone." She turned towards the door and raised her fist in the air. She knocked it a few times, and a second later, it opened.

"Whoa," the boy at the door said, looking Teana over. "You're in the wrong part of town, section one is way over to the west."

"Meryhotep, I'm gonna send you to section one if you don't knock it off. It was funny the first ten times, now not so much." She stepped into the much larger room, looking at the two dozen or so similarly aged kids sitting around on stools and reading parchment scrolls.

"Teana!" One of them cried, standing up from his stool and beaming. "Just in time for dinner."

Everyone around the room looked up and waved at her, thrilled to have her back. She smiled back and made her way to one of the cushioned chairs in the middle of the well-lit room.

"Good day?" Another one piped up.

"Good enough," Teana said, sitting down heavily and leaning back in the slightly reclined seat.

"Here," another one said, pushing a wooden basin of water in front of the chair. "It's really cold, it's been kept underground for awhile now."

She slipped her feet out of the sandals and placed them into the basin. She moaned in pleasure. "Oh, that's so sweet of you, Aapep." She kissed the tip of her right hand's fingers, then pressed her fingers onto his forehead.

She then pulled out the sack of gold and looked around the room. "Alright, let's get this over with."

_This is my family. These are the people I care about. The residents of section eight. All good kids, every last one of them. And every last one of them are from families who just barely make ends meet. Sometimes the ends don't meet. And that's where I come in._

"Alright, Alim, you need new clothes. And I don't wanna hear you telling me that you don't." She snapped her fingers and pointed at a young boy across the room. "Come over here."

Obediently, he walked forward through the crowd. "Seriously, get something a little big. You're growing so fast." She placed a small pile of coins into his outstretched hand. "And if you spend that on sweets, I'll know."

"Making rent last week kinda...stretched our food budget," one of the boys in the crowd said hesitantly.

"Nothing to be ashamed of, Sati," Teana insisted, motioning him to step forward. "Come here. There's a shop in the market that has deals on bulk. Go there, I'm serious." She poured some gold into his waiting hand.

"I could use like, twenty," another boy said, stepping forward slowly.

"Philitis, I could have sworn I just gave you twenty the other day. Did you lose it?" She asked, squinting at him.

"No, and that twenty was immensely helpful, but...I guess it's not a big deal, but...a twenty would help...get some people off my back." Philitis finished weakly.

"Like who, your father? Is he drinking again?" Teana pursed her lips.

"No, he's dry. It's nothing to do with him. I...I borrowed some gold and...well, I need to start un-borrowing it." Philitis shrugged.

Teana sighed. "Who?"

"Somebody," Philitis replied shyly.

"Philitis, I'll give it to you. I just want to know where it's going. I think that's fair." Teana crossed her arms over her ample chest.

Philitis looked down at the ground. "I...I borrowed from Akhekh-"

Immediately, Teana scowled, then reached forward and pulled Philitis closer. "What have I told you?" She said, very seriously. "What have I told you about Akhekh?"

"I know, okay?" Philitis looked away, but Teana grabbed his chin and pulled his head back to look at her. "I'm sorry, I know."

"No, you don't know," Teana said in a low hiss. "Don't you get it? Akhekh makes his living by doing things like this. He tricks you into a loan that you never pay back, and then you're his to do as he pleases. You think he'd be doing loans if everyone just paid him back immediately with no extras? You never borrow from him. Ever."

"I'm sorry, okay. It won't happen again, I just...needed a big sum quickly and...I didn't want to ask you because it was too much-"

"You_ always_ ask me," Teana interrupted, gripping the front of his robe tightly. "Always. Say it. You'll always ask me first."

"I'll always ask you first," Philitis said. Teana finally let his chin go, then looked around the room, still scowling.

"What'd you borrow?" She finally asked gruffly.

"A hundred," Philitis responded slowly. Teana grimaced, then looked away in disgust. "It's a hundred and twenty now, I swear the plan was for me to pay it off way before it got to this. But if I could just pay off twenty, he'd get off my back for awhile, and then I could-"

Teana pressed her left index finger up to his lips, shutting him up immediately.

"Come by my hut later today," she said in a whisper. "I want to talk to you in private."

He nodded, then quickly scampered off.

"Alright," Teana said loudly. "Where's...where's Merit? She hasn't stuck her hand in the well for awhile. She could use some meat, poor girl's getting so skinny." She looked around. "Well?"

There was a long silence. Finally, someone near the back of the room spoke up. "Her house was empty earlier today."

"Oh," Teana replied, leaning back in the chair. "Must have gone to visit her aunt."

"No." The voice said. "The house is...empty. No food, furniture, nothing."

"What?" Teana gasped, quickly pulling her feet out of the water and sticking them back into her sandals, rocketing up out of her chair.

.

Teana burst through the front door of the hut and looked around frantically. To her dismay, the tiny tapestry that had been there for years, to the right of the front door, was gone. She ran down the short hall into the main room.

"No, no!" she cried, looking around in disbelief. Nothing. No small basket of fruit by the stools along the far wall, and no stools for that matter, no barrel of drinking water...nothing.

_The rules to living in one of the ten sections are pretty simple. Basically, it's a step up from slavery. You get some level of choice in how you live your life, and in exchange, you have to prove you can handle your business without someone looking over your shoulder._

_Every moon cycle, you have to make a payment for use of the hut, and you have to pay your taxes. Of course, you need enough left over for food, clothes, and whatever else, but don't tell the collectors that. As long as you make the payments in full and on time, they leave you alone. But if you're so much as a day late on a payment, or your payment is just a couple debens short, you can kiss it goodbye._

_Men get forced into labor in the fields under the watchful eye of a sadist armed with a whip who doesn't need an excuse to use it, and women usually end up prostitutes. You don't have a say in what you do or how you do it. And that's your life. You mess up once, and the powers that be tie strings to your hands and feet, and boom, you're a puppet._

_I've only seen it happen a few times. It's always the same. One night, everything is fine, and the next morning, it's like the family was never there. House is empty, vacated for the next group. And you never see them again._

Teana ran into the side room, looking at the spots on the floor where the beds had been. They were gone. She sighed, then grabbed a hold of the door frame and bent over slightly.

"Son of a bitch," she said under her breath. "W-why would you do that? Merit, I talk to you every day, this is what I do...why...why would you...you idiot!" She punched the door frame, then stormed back towards the front door. "Stupid idiot!"

She turned around and took one last look at the inside of the hut, then walked out, slamming her fist against the wall as she did.

"Idiot!"


	2. A Working Girl

Chapter Two: A Working Girl

.

"It's just so...stupid," Teana said, hands clenched into fists and looking down at the stone floor. "Do these kids think I'm making all this gold for myself? No, it's for them."

"No matter what the situation is, darling, there's always shame in taking what is not yours," the old lady sitting on the cushion in the center of the room replied. She shifted around in the seat, pushing her long, white hair out of her face.

"Well, why?" Teana spat. "It's stupid! I do all this so I _don't_ have to see anyone get shipped off, but if people aren't going to let me know what's going on, then what's the point?" She walked over to a stool set on the far side of the small and barren room. "There's no shame in it."

"I'm very sorry, sweetie," she said somberly. "Merit was...well, we'll all miss her."

Teana sat down heavily, punching her knee." I talked to her a few days ago. All she had to say was one word, one word, and whatever she wanted would have been hers. Whatever she owed, whatever she was short on...now she's gonna spend the rest of her life performing lewd acts for old, fat, ugly men. Her mother too, and her father's gonna die of heat exhaustion in some field while getting bullwhipped. All because she couldn't give me one word."

"Teana, you're so sweet." The old lady smiled. "You want to control everything around you. You want the best for every single person in this section. It's so...noble."

"I'm just so upset, Sitto," Teana said grudgingly. "I don't play cards so I have enough gold for...jewelry or dresses, I do it to protect these guys. But they gotta let me protect them!"

"Why don't you go downstairs and have a drink to calm yourself?" Sitto suggested, motioning with her right hand towards the small staircase behind where Teana had sat. "You're such a wonderful person, and your friends don't know how lucky they are."

Teana stood up, then nodded, staggering down the stone steps.

"The barrel on the right!" Sitto called out as she disappeared down below. "The one on the left is the cheap stuff!"

Teana went down into the dimmed underground chamber, enjoying the chilling feel that hit her on entrance.

_This is sitto. No, I don't know her real name, and no, she's not actually my sitto. But she's a sitto to everyone in section six. And given she was there for me after my parents bit it, she's my sitto. If I'm the financial support for everyone in this section, then she's definitely the emotional support. You need advice, help, comfort, whatever, and she's there to lean on._

_She's the best. Wise, funny, experienced in the ways of the world. We'd all be lost without her presence. She deserves better than this section six craphole, but her husband died in battle fifteen years ago and this is the best she can do. It's a crime, but it's life. She's got two daughters, a little younger than me, who grow crops like you wouldn't believe to cover costs._

"I can't believe it," Teana said roughly, coming up the steps with a wooden cup in hand, drinking down the last of the contents. "I still keep hoping I'll wake up and she'll be there with her parents."

"Let it go, child," Sitto insisted. "You can't help everyone, no matter how much you want to. It's great that you want to, it really is, but it's not always going to work out."

Teana looked down at her feet. "Yeah."

"Be proud of what you've done! If it wasn't for you over the past four years, every single person living here would have gotten scooped up and rotated out!" Sitto smiled to herself. "Except for me of course, they'll never get rid of me."

"And the gender scales keep tipping," Teana added bitterly. "There are twenty-three kids left in section six, and twenty of them are boys."

"You're selling yourself short, sweetie," Sitto said. "You're no kid. Nineteen years old and taking on the responsibility of caring for everyone here? You're a grown woman. Besides, you like to hang out with the boys, don't deny it."

"Yeah, sure, but I don't want to be the only girl left," Teana said, looking down.

"Woman, dear. I might call you child because I'm ancient, but you're a woman. And a fine one at that." She glanced at the far wall. "I wish you had more women to socialize with too, dear. Spending all your time with boys, nothing good can come of that."

Teana shrugged. "I suppose it's just as well. Cards isn't really a common female passion."

"You just keep on going into town and teaching those pigs a thing or two about women," Sitto said sternly. "Either they'll learn to respect us or you'll get enough gold to buy all of Egypt, one or the other."

"I don't want Egypt." Teana walked towards the door. "I just want my friends to not have to be field slaves and whores."

.

Teana stepped into her hut, hut number three, kicking her sandals off by the door and walking right into the main room. Just a simple square room with nothing in the way of decoration, three stools around a cushioned chair. She collapsed into the cushioned chair, exhaling a quick, large breath as she did so. She leaned back, putting her palms up to her forehead, covering her face with her hands.

"God _dammit_," she huffed, picking her bare feet off the floor and crossing them in front of her.

"Never fear, perch is here!"

"AUGH!" Teana screamed, jumping to her feet and raising her fists up in front of her, spinning towards the passageway to the other room of her hut.

"Whoa, whoa!" A man, sitting on the threshold between the two rooms, raised his hands up defensively. "Calm down!"

"Akiiki!" Teana yelled, bringing her hands back down to her sides. "What is it with boys and breaking into my house today?"

"Calm down, it's me." Akiiki took a step back into the other room. "I just knew you were going to have a rough day today, so I thought I'd get something cooking before you got here. I have perch."

"Oh." Teana sat back down, even heavier this time. "You scared me half to death. Stop breaking into my house, all of you. You get what you needed today?"

"Yeah, sorry I couldn't make it out to town today, but I had to take care of some business." Akiiki reached over to his right and grabbed a wooden slab with a cooked fish on it.

"Don't worry, I did pretty well." Teana lifted her feet up into the air in front of her and looked at them. "Though my poor feet are gonna be paying for it for weeks."

"You could have taken the day off." Akiiki went over to Teana and handed the wooden slab to her. She took it and set it down in her lap.

"No I can't. I can't take days off." She started picking bits of meat off the fishbones with her right hand's fingers. "Not anymore at least."

"Well, I'll be out there with you tomorrow." Akiiki nodded.

Teana pulled her gold sack out of her robes, using her left hand to open the neck as her right hand continued to pick off the fish meat. "Where's Kafele?"

"Not back yet."

She took a pinch of gold debens out of the bag, then held them out towards Akiiki.

"Oh, no, not today, you flew solo today, I don't need it." Akiiki backed away.

"Doesn't matter, we're partners. It's just ten, you do need it, your mother has a new kid on the way." Teana kept the gold out towards Akiiki as she quickly gulped more fish down.

"Don't worry about it-"

"Take it before I shove it up your ass," Teana said flatly. Finally, Akiiki took the ten gold debens. Teana finished the fish and threw the wooden platter across the room against the wall.

"You, uh...you ate that fast," Akiiki said uneasily. "You uh, you okay? You seem a little-"

"Merit got scooped," Teana explained, scowling as she crossed her arms over her chest.

"Oh, you're kidding me!" Akiiki staggered back. "She couldn't make good on rent?"

"All she had to do was ask." Teana reached underneath her chair and pulled out a reed pen, tiny bottle of ink, and scroll of parchment. "Stupid, stupid girl. Have I _ever_ discouraged anyone from bringing me their financial problems? Ever?"

Akiiki looked towards the far wall of the room and shook his head. "I don't get it. Can't believe it, Merit. Last place she should be is in a brothel."

"Yeah, well...that's why I can't take days off," Teana muttered. "Not that it matters if these guys don't keep me informed on how things are going."

"Oh, you found a new game?" Akiiki asked as Teana unfurled her parchment scroll. Setting the small ink bottle on the armrest and opening it, she dipped her reed pen into it. "Cool." He stepped forward to peek at the scroll.

Teana hugged the surface of the parchment to her chest, staring at Akiiki. "Beat it."

"Oh come on, we're partners, right?" Akiiki held his hands out defensively. "Why can't I see it?"

"Because it's on a need to know basis, and you don't need to know. I need to know, Kafele needs to know, and that's it." Teana shooed him away with her left hand. "Back off."

Reluctantly, he took a couple steps away, and Teana started writing near the bottom of the scroll.

_A lot of work goes into me maintaining my character. I have to remember the location of the games I play, the names of each person I play, the personality and play style of each person, and of course whatever fake name I fed them. A single fuzzy memory could blow my entire operation. I could wander into a game with one person who thinks my name is Mesta, and another who thinks my name is Bast, and who knows if I'll be able to worm my way out of it. I have to remember everything. I find it helps to write things down._

"List of games is getting...pretty long, huh?" Akiiki said awkwardly.

Teana remained silent, concentrating on the ink she was putting to the parchment.

"A lot to remember, it's...impressive. Really. I mean, I couldn't even imagine doing what you do."

No response, Teana now staring at what she had just written and focusing hard on it.

"Seriously-"

"Zip it," she said sternly.

He complied as she stared for several more seconds. Finally, satisfied, she rolled the scroll back up and shoved it underneath her chair, followed quickly by her ink bottle and pen. She leaned back in the chair, closing her eyes.

"Can I talk now?" he asked tenatively.

"If you must," Teana said, not opening her eyes. At that moment, there was a knock at the door. "Can you get that, please?"

Akiiki made a quick trot over to the north side of the room as Teana remained sitting there, relaxing her body.

"Who is it?" Akiiki called out.

"It's...it's me."

"Philitis? That you?" Akiiki asked. Immediately, Teana stood up and walked out of the room, into the room where Akiiki had prepared the fish.

"Teana wanted to...talk to me, can I come in?"

Akiiki opened the door and admitted the slightly younger boy in. "Well, you don't look happy at all," he commented as Philitis slowly walked towards the near stool.

"I don't wanna talk about it," Philitis replied glumly, sitting down on one of the stools. A moment later, Teana re-entered, carrying a small sack with a closed neck in her right hand.

"Philitis," she said, her voice flat and emotion-less. "Go get yourself out of Akhekh's books."

"Teana, I'm really sorry, I-" Philitis started to babble. Teana cut him off by throwing the sack at him. He raised his hands up and just barely managed to catch it.

"You don't tell anyone I gave that to you," she said, voice still even and calm. "If anyone asks, I spotted you twenty to pay off part of it and then you earned the rest in town. Got it?"

Philitis felt the sack in his hand, which clearly contained many times more than the twenty gold debens he asked for.

"N-no, that's all I wanted, you don't have to-"

"Philitis, go to Akhekh, pay your debt off with that, and then make sure you never see him again so long as you live," Teana interrupted, approaching him slowly. "This isn't a discussion, I'm telling you what to do."

"O-okay, and again, I'm really sorry-"

In a flash, Teana reared back with her right hand, made a fist, and socked Philitis right in the left cheek. He fell off the stool and rolled over onto the ground, clutching the quickly-reddening mark on his face.

"That's so you remember." Teana started breathing heavily, pointing down at Philitis as he pushed himself up. "I'm serious, this isn't a small thing. You're pissing me off with this. You don't borrow from Akhekh, I've said it before."

Philitis got to his feet and quickly scrambled towards the door.

"If that gold goes anywhere other than Akhekh, you haven't _seen_ me angry, by the way," Teana said to Philitis's retreating back as he bolted out.

"Nice right hook," Akiiki complimented, looking at Teana. "Couple inches higher and he's knocked out cold."

"Don't look at me like that," Teana said, moving back over to the cushioned chair in the middle of the room and flopping down on it. "I gotta scare him. I can't have the kids thinking it's okay to deal with Akhekh."

"No, I think it's the right play," Akiiki looked down at the ground. "Yeah, it's all part of being a good leader. What'd you give him?"

"Hundred twenty," Teana replied coolly. Akiiki double taked.

"Seriously?" Akiiki bulged his eyes at Teana. "One twenty? Oh, Teana, I know you want to protect these kids, but at some point you gotta let them pay for their mistakes! That's a lot of coin."

"Nobody knows my own finances better than me. Akiiki, it's fine, trust me." Teana tapped her right hand's fingers on her knee. "It's fine. I wouldn't give him more gold than I could spare, we're fine."

"Okay, but...one twenty. It's like you said, we have to be tighter with gold now that you can't disguise yourself as a boy anymore, can't just throw debens at every problem."

Another knock at the door. Akiiki quickly turned to go answer it.

"Let me worry about it," Teana insisted. Akiiki opened the door.

"Oh hey, back in town."

Teana looked up and saw Kafele walk in, holding a pair of apples in either hand.

"New shipment came in today," he said, handing one to Akiiki and tossing the second to Teana. "Fresh. Delicious. The best."

"You handle your stuff?" Teana asked, looking the piece of fruit over in her hands.

"Yup, it's handled." Kafele nodded. "We ready to roll tomorrow?"

"Always. Unlike you guys, I roll every day, even when both my partners decide to bail on me." Teana looked over at the two boys, giving a small smile. "Full day tomorrow."

"Get some sleep. You need it." Akiiki pointed at Teana. "Tomorrow's gonna be a great day!"

"You know," Teana said loudly. "I just realized something. There would be no problems in my life, if everyone in my life just listened to me and did what I told them."

There was a long silence following that statement, following by Kafele snickering. "Well, yeah."

"Seriously. Merit, Philitis...why can't people just do what I tell them to do?" Teana shook her head. "Life would be so easy if people just...followed my instructions. How hard is that?"

"Get some sleep," Akiiki repeated.

"I'm pissed off right now." Teana closed her eyes and leaned back. "Tomorrow, we go for a big score."

.

"I'm serious," Teana said, leaning her left shoulder against the side of the building, hands at her sides, looking at the back of Akiiki's head. "Thank you for being the one person in my life I can depend on to do what I tell you to do. To follow instructions. If everyone in my life was like you, everything would be perfect."

"You're...welcome," Akiiki said, peering out from inbetween the two buildings, onto the busy streets of downtown Cairo.

"Seriously. What would I do without you?" Teana sighed wistfully.

At that moment, Kafele came into the alley between the two buildings from the left, shaking his head, kicking the sand up with his sandals.

"No good. Stay away." He came to a stop in front of Akiiki. "Merchants. Well off merchants, they're not playing with a woman unless we hold a knife to their throat."

"Alright, day's still young," Teana got up from against the wall. "Let's move a couple blocks down and feel things out."

"Hold on," Akiiki said, holding his hand up. "Switch it up, a lot of people around here are circling."

Immediately, Kafele shrugged off the pack on his back and swung it around in front of him, opening it up to reveal a small brown headdress. He put it onto his head. He reached back into the bag and pulled out a green bracelet, slipping it onto his left wrist.

_I don't work alone. That's no way to work. These two are my loyal assistants. Kafele is the scout. He finds games, then has a seat and listens for a bit. Figures out if anyone in the game would know who I am, figures out the betting structure of the game, figures the likelyhood that they'd let a woman in the game...in a matter of moments, he figures out if the game is worth trying. Today, he's trying to sniff out a game with some real power. Some serious gold. And when you're scouting for a woman, well, you have to sniff really hard._

.

"Okay, go for it," Kafele said quickly, running out of the main entrance to the bar. "Good a chance as any. It's just the kind of game you're looking for."

"Great," Teana said, ducking back into the side alley between buildings. "Alright, cover me up, guys."

Immediately, both boys pulled a large white sheet from their packs on their backs, unfurled them, and used them to shield Teana's body from anyone watching from either side of the alley.

"Don't peak," she said sternly as she shrugged off her own pack and pulled her worn, torn, and frayed robe out.

"Have we ever peaked before?" Akiiki said jokingly, turning away and closing his eyes.

"I've never had breasts before," Teana replied tartily, shrugging her nice, clean robe off her shoulders and putting it onto the ground. "I don't suppose I need to remind you that, if you mess this up, I'm going to kill you?"

"Hey, it's like you said. I do what you tell me to do." Akiiki said reassuringly.

Teana slipped into the worn robe, now looking very much like a section one. She handed her robe to Kafele, then reluctantly slipped her feet out of her sandals. As soon as her soles touched the boiling sands, she winced.

"Take them!" She said through gritted teeth, pointing down at them. "Alright, Akiiki, let's go!" She took in a deep breath, then screwed her face up and willed herself to ignore the pain. Akiiki grabbed her right hand in his left, and the two walked across the street.

It was a small bar, fairly empty at the time, three tables and a long counter along the far wall. At the table along the back, there was a group of half a dozen men, all with various amounts of gold coins in front of them. This was a bigger game, clearly showcased by the fact that all of the men had the much bigger 'ten-deben' coins in front of them. The two of them strolled in, Akiiki eagerly walking right up to the table when he saw a hand just wrapping up.

"Ah, this city is beautiful!" He said loudly, drawing the attention of all six. "This is my first time here, and I gotta say, I might never leave!"

"Good for you," one of the men said as the table flicked their cards over to the dealer, seated on the right side of the table.

"Cards, huh?" Akiiki pressed on, leaning over the table. "The grand old game. My father's a big fan."

"Can we help you?" Another of the men said, turning around to look at the pair. "I'm sorry, that sounded rude, but we're trying to play here."

"Well, honestly, y'know, I'm new in town, and my dad finally isn't looking over my shoulder, so I was looking for a game." Akiiki reached down into the left pocket of his robes and pulled out a bulging sack. "I think it's time I finally stop watching and actually, y'know, try my hand at it."

Everyone at the table looked at him for a moment, glancing amongst each other.

"So you haven't played before?" one of them asked.

"Nope!" Akiiki shook his head. "But, y'know, first time for everything."

"What you got there?" He asked, pointing at the sack.

"Oh, about...five hundred gold debens." Akiiki replied, tossing the sack a couple inches up into the air.

"That's pretty strong," he said, nodding. He then wrinkled his nose as he glanced at Teana. "This your slave? In this city we typically don't bring our slaves into public places unless they're presentable."

"Oh, no!" Akiiki laughed, waving his hand at him. "No, ah, this here is my dear cousin!" He clapped her on the back as she stood there silently, hands clasped in front of her. "She doesn't talk much. I'm taking her around town."

"Right," one of the men said. "Well, you're more than welcome to pull up a chair. Always room for one more."

"Sure you don't wanna save some of that gold for a new robe for this poor girl?" Another said, looking with distaste at Teana's low-class wardrobe.

"Oh, I'd love to! I'd buy her a whole lot more than a new robe! I love this girl, she's...she's the best, but her husband..." Akiiki slowly got into one of the chairs surrounding the table. "He's a stubborn guy. Good guy, but stubborn. I keep telling him, let me get you some gold, help you out, but he won't take a single deben. He keeps going on and on, I'm gonna work my way out of this lifestyle, I'm gonna do it on my own...it's a mess."

"I had a uncle, did the same thing!" One of the men at the table said. "My father's a retired general, fat military pension, and my uncle was in section three. My father wanted nothing more than to just get him some gold, get him out of that craphole, but he wouldn't take it! Stupid, stupid. Died a few years ago, still be alive now if he had just accepted some help."

"You a section one?" The man nearest to her asked, looking her robe over. She nodded quickly. "My advice for you, talk some sense into the man. Nothing good is going to come of you guys staying there."

Akiiki made himself comfortable on the seat, placing the fat sack on the table in front of him. He exchanged a quick, meaningful look with Teana. "Ooh, yeah, guys, I almost forgot! I know it's really weird, but...I sort of promised her. And this would really be fulfilling a lifelong dream for her. I told her I'd get her in a real card game, how about it?"

Dead silence for several moments, then a exasperated sigh from the furthest man at the table. "You serious? You serious right now?"

"Yeah, I know, but she's always wanted to play in a real game." Akiiki shrugged, giving an awkward smile. "I promised her."

"We're not playing for bragging rights," one of the men said quietly. "Come on man, we're playing for gold, you know that." He motioned at Akiiki's gold sack on the table. "You want us to play with a woman? Even if I'd bite on that, she couldn't even afford our pre-card bets."

"Nah man," Akiiki said, waving him off. "This woman, she's been wanting to play in a real game of cards since she was little. Saving her debens, hiding it, little by little. She's got a hundred gold debens to play with."

"I've been saving for four years," Teana said meekly, giving a small smile to the other men.

"Well that's great," one of the men said flatly. "So we get to take the gold this woman's been saving for the last four years in one day? That makes me feel great about myself. No, forget about it, I draw the line here."

"Yeah, man, you can play, but I really don't think your cousin belongs here," another agreed.

"Well, that's too bad." Akiiki got up from the chair, grabbing his sack of gold and turning away. "Sorry, I promised her. Nothing personal, but I can't go back on my promise with my cousin. I'll find another game, don't even sweat it."

"Wait!" The dealer said, holding his hand out towards Akiiki. "Come on man, you're not gonna find a game that lets a woman in, you'll be searching for a whole moon cycle. Just sit down and...I dunno, I'll buy the girl a drink."

"No, sorry, this girl has enough bad going on in her life without me breaking my promises to her." Akiiki took a couple steps away from the table.

"Alright, screw it, she's in," the dealer said quickly. "Just...keep this quiet please. And whatever happens, happens, we play for keeps."

Teana clapped her hands together in front of her and quickly ducked into the nearest empty chair. Akiiki retook his seat, dumping his gold into a pile in front of him. Teana pulled out a much smaller sack of gold, pouring it out on the edge of the table.

"I feel guilty already," one of the men said dryly. "Pre card bets are five, we have a rotating double spot. Two raises per rotation maximum, and raises can be either twenty or forty."

"Deal em!" Akiiki said loudly.

_And Akiiki is the table partner. Me and him know the playbook as well as we know our own names. The general idea is simple. He draws all the focus to him so it's not on me. He's loud, a little obnoxious, and he's got a big wad of gold. All he has to do is claim he's a card novice, and the whole table starts drooling over themselves at the prospect of taking him to the cleaners._

_It's so tempting, they can't help but bite even after he says they have to let me play too. All eyes are on his massive stack of debens, meaning there are no eyes left for me. And if you think that's a good trick, wait until the game starts._

.

"Oh man, someone is taking a swing at the fences!" Akiiki tapped the table with the bottom of his right fist a couple times. "You feeling big?"

"Yeah sure," the other man replied.

Akiiki took another peak at his two cards, then at the four cards out on the table. He licked his lips and glanced around at everyone.

"Nice pot, nice pot, big gold, big gold," Akiiki said excitedly. "You know what? Count me in. I'm re-raising, putting in twenty and adding another twenty." Akiiki pushed a good amount of gold into the center.

"Match," Teana said quietly, pushing forty pieces of gold to the center.

"Enjoying that run of five you just pulled?" The third man left in the hand said dryly, throwing his two cards over to the dealer. "Well, congratulations."

The fifth card came out. Ankh priest.

"Alright, alright!" Akiiki clapped his hands together a few times. "Let's do this thing, I wager twenty!" He pushed the gold into the pot.

"Re-raise," Teana muttered, pushing the twenty plus an additional twenty in. Akiiki's face twitched a few times.

"Well, you have guts, my dear cousin," Akiiki said through gritted teeth. "Guts." He threw his cards over to the dealer. "Too many guts for me, I think."

"Son of a bitch, you didn't have the run, did you?" The man to his immediate left.

"I had you guys!" Akiiki grunted. "I had you!"

_Akiiki isn't nearly this bad at cards. He's okay. Average. Okay, he's good. He's no me, of course, but he can hold his own. But that's not his job today. All he has to do is play like the biggest card novice the world has ever seen, and make sure all the attention is on him while he's doing so. Everyone notices him losing his gold and making a big fuss about it, and nobody notices me being the beneficiary of it all._

_Akiiki uses his big stack of gold to bully other people out of hands, and then conk out of the hand when I pressure him. He gets animated, angry, and generally acts like an idiot with a lot of gold. One thing's for sure: Akiiki may not be the best card player in the world, but he plays the part of the sore loser like a champ._

_We come at them from all the different angles. Sometimes, he bullies everyone out of the pot, then hands it to me. Other times, he wins a hand and just bleeds the debens back to me in a later hand. Every now and then, I'll even make a move from time to time. And it always ends the same way._

.

"Ra!" Akiiki spat, throwing his cards back over to the dealer. "I don't know if it's the blood bond or what, but this woman is reading me like a book!"

"Pile getting thin, eh sport?" one of the men said, looking at the quickly dwindling mound of sparkling pieces in front of Akiiki. "Word of advice, ease up on the bluffing."

"I'll play the way I play, okay?" Akiiki spat, gripping the edges of the table. "Just...deal em."

"Pre-bets," the dealer demanded, everyone putting their gold in the middle.

The cards went out, everyone getting two. Teana peaked at hers. Only years of experience prevented her from displaying her excitement. It had taken well over fifty hands, but she had finally found herself in possession of the hand of the gods. A pair of gods, ankh and pyramid.

It was time. Dinner was approaching fast. One last big take, and they'd get out of here. But for it to work, they'd need a couple other things to spin their way first.

"Alright, I feel things spinning my way now," Akiiki said, pushing twenty gold debens in to the pot. "Twenty deben raise."

Things went around, three of the other players electing to stay in the game. Things were falling into place perfect. One in a hundred hands type perfectly.

"Match," Teana mumbled, pushing some of her now impressively large gold stack to the middle.

"Alright, things are happening!" Akiiki said loudly, a sardonic grin on his face.

"Yeah, because that's not the twentieth time you've said that today," the dealer said dryly. He discarded a card, then put down three ones in the middle. A farmer, a pharaoh, and a queen.

"Alright, you guys don't even know what's gonna hit you here, I'm raising again," Akiiki announced immediately, pushing twenty more coins in.

"All yours," the one to his immediate left replied as he threw his cards back to the dealer. The other two, however, met his bet, making the pot the fattest one of the day after Teana stayed in the hand as well.

"Someone's about to be a very happy man," the dealer said slowly as he discarded a card. "Or woman," he added, glancing at Teana.

He put the fourth card down. Vizier. Teana shot Akiiki a glance. It was time to end the hand before the fifth card could save anyone.

"Alright, well, I think I've got about...thirty-seven debens left, why not? I bet it all!" Akiiki pushed the remainder of his gold into the middle.

"Nobody can try to bluff that many times in a row," one of the men across the table said, chucking his cards to the dealer. "Forget it."

The other man remaining in the game peeked down at his cards again. He looked down at his gold, then back to Akiiki.

"Dammit," he finally said, conking out of the hand and throwing his cards over to the dealer spot.

"Match," Teana said, flipping her cards over to reveal her two gods. After glaring at Teana's two cards, Akiiki reluctantly revealed his pharaoh and priest.

"Ooh boy! Unless you get another pharaoh or priest right here, you're walking out of here empty handed!" The man to the left of Akiiki said loudly, pounding his fist on the edge of the table and looking at the dealer.

The dealer scrapped a card, then threw down the final one. A queen. Akiiki stood up, throwing his hands into the air and cursing loud enough to draw the attention of the server.

"Well, better luck next time, eh?" One of the men said as Akiiki spun around, pacing back and forth.

"Yeah, luck, that's all it was. String of bad luck," Akiiki said malicefully. "You know, this game...there's something wrong with this game, there should be more skill involved, there's no way the cards should be able to go that cold for that long for one person."

"Man, you're already out of gold, leave while you still have a little scrap of dignity. You're losing it, fast," another man said, smirking up at Akiiki as his face went red.

"Whatever," Akiiki stormed towards the front door. "Peace."

Meanwhile, Teana had been scooping her large amount of winnings into her sack, frantically funneling the gold through the neck.

"Hey, word of advice," the dealer said to Teana, leaning in. Teana cowered down towards her seat slightly. "Play that idiot at cards as much as humanly possible. You'll be rich in no time."

"Yes sir," Teana said quietly, shoving the last bit of her winnings into her bag before closing the neck and heaving it up with both hands.

"Don't spend it all in one place," another man suggested as she got up. "Get out of those sections. Those places are the worst."

"Yes sir, thank you for the honor of letting me play," Teana said, bowing to the table before scampering off towards the door.

She ran across the street, skipping to keep her feet off the sand as much as possible, going down a couple buildings through a thin crowd before entering a small alley between two walls.

"Nobody loses like you," Teana said, dropping the bulging sack of coins into the much larger sack on Kafele's back, then reaching in to pull out her sandals. She threw them on the ground and slipped them on.

"That went about as well as they come," Akiiki said, smacking Teana on the back. "Drinks?"

"After I change." She pulled out her other robe and unfurled it as her two partners got out their sheets to cover her from any prying eyes.

.

"So what was the final haul, exactly? I lost count," Akiiki asked, pointing at the large bag Kafele wore on his back.

"Sixteen hundred something," Teana replied. "The high sixteen hundreds."

"From six hundred to start." Akiiki nodded. "Great day."

"We'll lay off for awhile now," Teana said slowly. "Play small games for the next moon cycle or so. Today felt good but if we get infamous the whole thing is squashed." The three were in a small, rather depressing looking bar, each with a large wooden cup of beer in front of them, seated around a small stone table.

"But days like this are good for the soul," Kafele insisted, grabbing his cup and taking a sip from it. "We need big days like this sometimes."

"Small world."

Teana turned around to look at the entrance. Ramses had just walked in, hands in the pockets on the side of his robe and a large bag on his back.

"Shouldn't you be at a classier joint?" Teana asked sarcastically, giving him a light punch on the shoulder as he walked by her. He took a seat to her left.

"Yeah I should be, but you guys just keep dragging me down to your level, what can I say?" Ramses shrugged, then raised his hand up towards the bartender. "I'll have what they're having?"

"Good action today?" Kafele asked, eye on the bag that Ramses had on his back.

"Oh, you better believe it." Ramses gave a low whistle. "Couple thousand debens up, at the casino down the street."

"Oh, rub it in, rub it in," Teana said bitterly. "Look at me, I'm Ramses, I can get into casinos, I'm so special."

"Yeah, it was great and...well, you know, I got banned from the place for life, but hey." Ramses smiled sheepishly.

"Come on man," Teana sighed. "How many places are you gonna get kicked out of before you figure it out? You win too much too fast, and people get sick of you real fast."

"Yeah, I know, but it feels awesome," Ramses said, shaking his head and grinning. "Taking big pots off of amateurs, taking control of the whole table, there's no better feeling. So how'd you guys do?"

"Little more than a thousand up," Teana replied. "I needed a big day, this Merit business had me pissed off. I feel better now."

"Nice!" Ramses gave her a thumbs up. "So where's that thousand gonna go?"

Teana rolled her eyes. "Jewelry, of course, you know how much I love jewelry."

"Let me guess. You're gonna stick it at home and let it collect dust until one of the kids asks for it." Ramses sighed. "I've never seen a more skilled card player live such a boring life."

"Ten debens for beer," Teana said, motioning at the three wooden cups on the table. "The rest gets saved for a rainy day."

"Whatever," Ramses said, pursing his lips. "You ever gonna start living for yourself? You're living for every single person in section six, never for yourself."

"Live for myself," Teana repeated. "What does that even mean?"

"It means, stop trying to control everything around you and make everyone happy," Ramses explained, putting his hands up in the air. "You go out here every day and make gold, damn good gold mind you, and then you just give it away to the first person who comes and asks for it. Meanwhile you're stuck as a section six peasant even though you're way more than that."

"Hey, mister big shot, last I checked you're a section sixxer too," Teana retorted, giving a curt smile.

"I'm saving for something big," Ramses replied, grinning. "None of your business."

"Okay, live for myself. I go out and buy a nice new robe, something high class with nice ornamentation. So now i'm a section six peasant with a nice robe. What am I gonna do, wear it around the house? Wear it down in the basement? Wear it in town, I can't wear it in town, I'm working when I'm in town. How does having a nice robe make me feel good about myself. Or I could buy jewelry, an expensive ruby ring or something. Great, now I can wear a ring everywhere, what's that do for me? None of that stuff matters, none of that does a thing."

"Do me a favor," Ramses said as his wooden cup was brought over from across the room. "Go over to the wall on the right side there and read the poster. The one on the left. And come back, and lemme know what you're thinking."

Teana gave a small sigh, but smiled and pushed herself into a standing position. Slowly, she walked over to the wall Ramses indicated and peered at the leftmost poster.

_COUNTDOWN: SEVEN DAYS_

_THE GRANDEST PARTY IN EGYPT_

_COURTYARD OF THE GRAND PALACE_

_RUB ELBOWS WITH NOBILITY AND WEALTH_

_EAT THE FINEST FOODS_

_ENJOY THE FINEST MUSICAL ENTERTAINMENT IN THE WORLD_

_MEET THE ROYAL FAMILY IN PERSON_


	3. She Cleans Up Nicely

Chapter Three: She Cleans Up Nicely

.

"Well? What do you think?" Ramses asked after Teana returned from reading the poster.

"It appeared to be made on expensive, thick parchment. Nice penmanship, appeared to be a quality make of ink," Teana replied, sitting back and taking a swig out of her cup as Ramses looked at her.

"Come on," Ramses needled. "Wouldn't it be nice to spend some time with the elites of society? Just one day of real living, don't tell me it doesn't sound interesting."

"Okay, maybe it does, what's your point?" Teana looked back over at the poster. "It says right on the poster, nobles and wealth. I'm neither. In fact, I'm far from either, so this conversation is over before it begins."

"What if I told you that you could get into that party?" Ramses asked, motioning with his hand towards Teana. "If I told you that there was a way for you to get into that party, would you be interested?"

"Alright, fine, yes. I'll play along," Teana responded.

"Today's your lucky day!" Ramses pounded the table. "You can get into that party!"

"Yeah, if I pledge myself to the Pharaoh's harem, I might just be one of the dancers." Teana looked at Ramses amusedly. "But by all means, go on, keep talking."

"Listen." Ramses leaned in. "That party is a fundraiser for the palace, not much else. There's a charge to get in to the party, and they want to give all the wealthy people in the empire the chance to meet, talk, plan business ventures that lead to additional, taxable wealth. They have this party every year, and it's always just been about generating more gold."

"Good for the palace, what does that have to do with me?" Teana shrugged.

"So, the point is, they don't really care who you are. If you have enough gold to get through the gate, and you look like you belong at the party, you can get in. They're not gonna ask questions about who you are, they just want your gold." Ramses gestulated wildly at the other three.

"Okay, great." Teana gave him a sarcastic thumbs-up. "I don't have gold, and I don't look like I belong at a high-class party."

"Come on, don't lie." Ramses glared at Teana. "You have gold. Inspite of your wild charitable deeds, I know you make gold faster than you give it out. I'm not stupid, y'know. You have plenty of gold."

"Well, I sort of need to have large backup reserves, Ramses," Teana retorted. "I need to have that gold waiting for the kids."

"Gimme a break," Ramses said, narrowing his eyes. "Just say it. Just tell me. How much gold are you sitting on? Be honest, can you do that for me?"

Teana glanced at Kafele for a moment, lips pursed.

"Come on, Teana, just honestly tell me what you have saved up right now." Ramses continued to glare right at her.

"Well...a thousand debens," Teana finally relented.

Ramses snorted. "You expect me to believe that? Come on now, you've been working this game for years, you have more than a thousand. You have way, _way_ more than a thousand. Ten times that I'd bet."

"Gold disappears quickly when you're caring for two dozen families, not that you'd know anything about that," Teana said coolly. "Maybe I do have more than a thousand debens, but a thousand debens is all I'm willing to risk. The rest is a safety blanket. I need a big safety blanket. A thousand debens is the most I'm willing to discuss, the rest is waiting for an emergency."

"Okay, fine," Ramses conceded. "A thousand debens, fine, we can work with that. The charge to get into the party gate is four thousand, and I'll bet another thousand would get you looking like a rich girl. You know, clean yourself up, new dress, rent some jewelry, and you'll look just like a noble!"

Teana scoffed. "Well that's it then. Let's stop talking about it. I have one, you say I need five."

"Don't play dumb, Teana," Ramses replied. "Nobody knows better than you that one thousand can turn into five thousand real quick."

"The party's in seven days," Teana reminded him, motioning to the poster. "And I need to lay low. I mean, sure, hypothetically, _if_ I could find multiple high-stakes card games that actually let me play over the next seven days, _if_ the cards fall right and I'm able to actually make a big score without looking suspicious, then yes, I could turn a thousand into five thousand. But that's not the case. For me to realistically be able to turn a thousand into five thousand, accounting for a reasonable margin of error, I'd need to get into a game with...twenty deben pre-card bets and fifty or hundred deben wagers. I can't get into games like that anymore."

"I can get you in a game like that," Ramses said, pointing at her. "I promise you. I know some guys, high-rollers, I play with them all the time. These guys, they love me."

"Nobody loves you, Ramses," Teana interrupted.

"Well, these guys, maybe it's something else, but I can always get a game with them. They're stubborn, I think they keep thinking that they'll eventually win their gold back. I keep waxing them, but their dads are all merchants. Big time merchants, gold means nothing to them. Maybe they just wanna watch an expert play, try to learn how to play the game. It's one of the three. But I can always get a game with them. They play fifty hundred, just like you said. And they don't mind getting cleaned out apparently, because I've been doing it for months. It's five guys, they generally get together three times a moon cycle. I'll make sure they get together in the next couple days."

"Okay, great, one game. It's a start, but it's one game. I can't turn one thousand into five thousand in one game. I mean, if everything goes perfectly, and I mean perfectly, sure it could happen, but I'd have to play wild. Wild enough to where it's more likely that I lose my thousand. Way more likely. You're asking me to go against everything I've taught myself my whole life. I'm not risking a thousand debens of gold on this. That's not how I do things." Teana shook her head.

Ramses scratched the back of his neck. "I could probably talk them into...hundred two hundred."

"No way." Teana bit her cheek. "All that does it increase the risk. If I'm cold on the first five or six hands, I'm sunk."

"Well, there's one last option." Ramses shot Teana a meaningful look. "These guys play a rotating dealer."

Teana's eyes narrowed. "Ramses, you son of a bitch, don't tell me you've been yanking again."

The tanned teenager shrugged. "It might have had...something to do with me getting banned from that casino today."

"Ramses, if they catch you in the wrong place, they're not just gonna kick you out. They're gonna beat the hell out of you or hand you over to the guards. That's a long prison sentence." Teana took in a deep breath. "You and I both know you don't need to yank to win."

"I didn't get caught! They just got suspicious, some jerk was watching the game and noticed I kept taking big pots whenever it was my turn to deal," Ramses huffed. "Okay, I shouldn't have done it today, it was careless. But these guys, they're rich idiots, they'll never realize what's going on! Just to be safe, we can be a little discrete. Maybe I'll just do it when you're on a cold streak. But it pretty much eliminates the risk."

"You need to knock that off," Teana insisted. "You're a fine player without it."

"It's a big help," Ramses commented. "Come on. These guys are loaded, they're not that smart, and aren't you always talking about getting one over on this male dominated society? This would be the perfect way to pull one over on them!"

Teana sighed. "It's not right."

"Oh, I know." Ramses pointed at her two partners on either side of her. "You're afraid of hurting their feelings. I'm sure they won't mind you running with me for one day."

"Teana, if it means you getting to spend a day inside that party, then I'm all for it," Akiiki said, looking at her seriously.

"You deserve it. I say go for it," Kafele agreed.

"I'm dead if you get caught yanking," Teana pointed out. "Dead."

"These guys aren't gonna catch me, they play drunk." Ramses waved his hands at her. "We're not getting caught. Look, I've already decided, I'm going to the party. Don't you wanna be there with me? It'll be fun."

Teana tilted her head to the left. "Well...come see me tomorrow morning, I need to think about this one."

.

_I'm a better card player than Ramses. I'll say that until the day I die, and then I'll keep saying it in the afterlife. But I have to give Ramses this. He's a better dealer than me. In fact, he's the best dealer I've ever seen. I'd say he's too good; he'd say he's just good enough. Even when I'm watching for it, I can never spot his tricks._

Ramses shuffled the card deck, hands a blur, pulling a large chunk of the cards out of the center of the pack and placing it on top, then repeating the process with fewer cards each time until the shuffle cycle was done. He kept repeating this process, each cycle just taking a moment to conclude. Eventually, he raised up the top card and showed it to Teana. The Ankh God.

He put it back on top of the deck, then did another shuffle cycle. Pulling out the middle chunk, shoving it on the top, repeating six or seven times, then pulling the top card up and showing it to Teana. The Ankh God.

"Come on, how is anyone gonna catch me?" Ramses asked, repeating the shuffling process.

"All you have to do is slip once," Teana said. The two were seated in the main room of her hut, Teana in her cushioned chair and Ramses on a stool. Ramses again flashed the Ankh God card, having caused it to resurface to the top yet again even after a vicious cycle of shuffling.

"I don't slip anymore," Ramses insisted. He went down off the stool on to one knee. He did another vigorous cycle of shuffling, then placed two cards face down at Teana's feet. He set one card to the side, then placed the next three face up. Pyramid Vizier, Pyramid Prince, Pyramid Pharaoh. He set another to the side, then drew the Ankh Farmer. Another discard, and the fifth card was the Djed Priest.

Reluctantly, Teana flipped her two cards over with her right toes. Pyramid Queen and Pyramid God. The most powerful hand in cards.

"You deal me Atum's hand in an actual game situation, and even those drunk idiots will suspect something," Teana warned as Ramses picked the cards back up.

"I'm just trying to make a point," Ramses insisted. "Don't worry about it, it'll be subtle. You'll catch trio-pairs on the fifth card, pick up routine runs-of-five, that kind of thing, you have my word. I'll get them to play a game in four days, gives us a couple days to prepare you."

_This guy can practically will cards out of a deck. He can shuffle a deck a thousand times, hands too fast to even see, and get the same card to come out on top every single time. He'll peak at the bottom card while shuffling, then shuffle until it's something he likes, then pulls it while dealing cards so fast nobody can see, makes it look like he was just drawing from the top. He can memorize all the cards out during a hand, take them back in for the next deal, then shuffle the deck so the ones he wants for the next hand show up exactly where he wants them, and the ones he doesn't want get buried at the bottom. We have a word for people like Ramses. We call him a yanker._

"You word means nothing to me." Teana stood up, stretching her back out. "Alright, I'm in."

"Wear your good clothes," Ramses instructed, standing back up. "I'll make it fly."

.

"Ramses, if I've told you once, I've told you a million times, take your sandals off when you come into my house!"

"Oh come off it," Ramses replied, walking up to the circular marble table that had five young men surrounding it. "Who cares? We all know you have an army of maids march through here five times a day."

"Whatever. Today's the day I finally win my gold back. Who's the girl?"

It was a large, well-decorated room, a thick carpet on the floor and ornaments hanging on virtually every wall surface. A massive golden harp was in one of the corners, and a set of trumpets and flutes was propped up on the wall.

"This _woman_ is Monifa." Ramses patted her on the back. "Monifa, might I introduce you to Basa, Seker, Seb, Ptei, and Nesu."

"Finally dating a girl? I was starting to wonder about you Ramses, good job." Seker eyeballed Teana. "Nice rack on this one."

Teana forced a smiled at him.

"She's very pretty," Seb said. "Can she make drinks? Prepare food? That'd be nice for tonight."

"Oh buzz off, there are a dozen servants in this house to do that," Ramses spat, sitting down in one of the empty seats. "She's a friend, and she's our seventh for the night."

"Ever the comedian," Basa said, starting to stack his ten-deben coins up in front of him. "Come on, get her out of here, if you think I'm gonna let her watch the game and signal our cards to you, you've got another thing coming."

"I'm not kidding around," Ramses said as he whipped out his gold sack and dumped it out. "She's playing. She's got a thousand debens, same as me. Take a seat, Monifa."

"Whoa whoa whoa," Ptei said, putting his hand on the one remaining empty chair. "I have a reputation to maintain here."

"Your reputation is the guy who hasn't hit twenty yet and is already going bald, this isn't going to change that," Ramses retorted. "You guys always said I could bring other players, well, now I have."

"The card table is no place for a woman, Ramses, you know this. Come on, how about I give her fifty debens to go across the street and buy a new dress or rug? Would that get rid of her?" Nesu held a handful of gold coins up.

"Either we both play, or neither of us plays," Ramses said malicefully. "I'm not gonna have you pricks disrespect my friends. I can find other games, trust me, you guys will never see me again. I'll vanish the...what is it now, twelve thousand debens I've taken off you guys?"

Everyone looked around at each other, until finally Seker sighed. "More gold for us."

"I've got a good feeling about tonight, Ramses," Ptei said, pointing at him. "Today is the day my luck turns, and you're kidding if you think I'm letting you walk out of here without letting me take my gold back. Your friend can play if it makes you happy."

"A good feeling?" Ramses repeated. "Well, I'll give you a chance to get your gold back." He raised his hands towards the rest of the people at the table as Teana took her seat. "All of us start the game with a thousand debens exactly, and we don't leave until someone has claimed every last bit of it."

"Ooooh, bold," Basa replied, nodding. "I'm down." The table murmured general agreement.

"One of us is walking away with an additional six thousand debens, and the rest of us with nothing. I mean, not that you guys know what I'm talking about since you can just go to your daddies and whine until you get more gold." Ramses looked around. "Nobody leaves until they're out of gold. If you want to leave the table, you have to forfeit all your gold to the pot."

"Alright. Rotating dealer starts with Seb," Basa said, handing the deck to Seb.

.

"I'm up on the dealer?" Ramses asked, taking the deck. "Alright, that means Monifa has the double."

Everyone bet their gold in the middle as Ramses shuffled. Teana watched his motions intently, unable to make anything out of it other than simply random shuffling. To her satisfaction, the rest of the table had their eyes on the gold and, in less savory instances, her chest. She cringed inwardly, but if it would help her win...

Quickly, Ramses dealt the cards out, everyone checking what they had. Teana waited for a few seconds, watching the reactions of everyone else, then dipped down to check hers. Ankh Queen and Djed Queen.

"Pass," Ptei said. Teana turned her focus to her stack of gold. Down to the low nine hundreds. The game had been dull and uneventful so far, everyone just gaining and losing pre-card bets. It was time. The passes kept going around the table until...

"Wager fifty," Basa announced, pushing a couple of large gold coins to the middle. Ramses sized him up as the action went to Seb.

"I'll match that," Seb declared, matching the gold wager with one of his own, turning attention to Ramses.

"Well, if you insist," Ramses said, pushing more gold to the center. "I'll match that."

"You'd never guess I was the female at this table," Teana said, grabbing a large mound of her gold and pushing it in. "I match and raise a hundred."

"Well damn," Ptei uttered, re-glancing at his cards. "Forget it."

"Bullied out of a hand by a lady," Ramses taunted. "Sad sight."

Nesu and Seker crapped out of the hand as well, ignoring Ramses's challenge. All eyes were on Basa as he glared at his cards, then at his gold.

"I'll match a hundred," he finally said, placing his wager to the center.

"I don't back down from anything," Seb muttered, matching the hundred debens to the pot.

"You know what? Why not, let's get a big pot going," Ramses decided, quickly making his wager and discarding a card from the top of the deck. "Alright, here we go."

With that, the first three cards were placed. Was Farmer, Djed Farmer, Was Queen.

Basa inhaled, peeking at his cards yet again.

"They're not gonna change, buddy," Ramses goaded.

"Pass," Basa said through gritted teeth.

"Pass it on," Seb agreed, pointing to Ramses.

"Pass," Ramses said, turning to Teana.

"Okay, kiddies. Here's how you play a winner-take-all game. Wager a hundred," Teana taunted, pushing another respectable heap of gold into the middle.

Basa puffed out his cheeks, then let the air out in one big huff. He grabbed his large wooden mug of beer and took a huge gulp. "I'm a good four mugs away from being willing to chase that." He threw his cards back over to Ramses.

"Seb, your play." Ramses motioned to his right.

With a grimace, Seb glared at Teana, then at the pot. He looked at the three cards out on the table, then slowly took a sip out of his wooden mug.

"It's like my father is saying," Seb said quietly, pushing a hundred debens into the pot. "We got to show the women in the world where they belong."

"You know what, I gotta hang around for this one," Ramses said, quickly adding his gold to the pot. He discarded one card, then placed the fourth. Ankh Vizier.

Seb drained the remainder of his mug, then turned around to look at the door leading out of the room. "ANOTHER!" he shouted.

"Jeez, Seb, every bar this side of town is gonna bring you a refill." Nesu shook his head. "You alright?"

"More than alright! I wager a hundred!" Seb pushed more of his coins to the center, looking expectantly at Ramses. Though no expression came to Teana's face, she knew this hand was going to turn the game for good. It was pretty safe to say that Seb was holding a Farmer and Vizier, giving him three farmers with two viziers, a hand he'd surely go all the way with.

"You know what, uh, I'm gonna...you know, I'd really love to see this thing play out, but I gotta get out." Ramses discarded his two cards to the side and shook his head. Ramses was going to lose this hand by design, and he needed to maintain at least a little gold in front of him so he could stay in the game.

"Match and re-raise, another hundred," Teana said immediately, pushing most of the rest of her gold in. The pot was now closing in on two thousand debens.

"Right back at ya!" Seb said eagerly, putting another hundred into the middle.

"Last card coming." Ramses burned a card, then placed the final one. Pyramid god.

"Girlie, if we could go all-in right now, you have no idea how quickly I'd put your feet to the flames and get you right out of this game," Seb said, a dangerous leer in his eyes.

"Told you we should have limited his beer intake," Nesu said quietly to Ptei. "We need to teach this guy how to drink sometime."

"A hundred!" Seb nearly yelled, reducing his gold stack to nearly nothing by raising.

"You must be happy with your hand," Teana said dryly. "Although I'm not sure if it's the hand with the cards, or the hand with the mug." She shoved twenty ten-deben coins to the center, beckoning Seb forward, leaving her gold mound at only two hundred and fifty. "Match and re-raise another hundred."

For a split second, Seb's smile faltered, but flashed back just as quickly as he eagerly reduced his gold stack to a little less than three hundred by matching. Immediately, he picked up his cards and threw them down on top of the gold.

"Trio-pair! Three farmers and two viziers!" He reached out for the pot.

Teana threw her two cards right on the back of his hands, revealing her two Queens. "Trio-pair, three queens and two farmers. Your hands are on my gold."

Seb's grin flew from his mouth as he stared at the cards in shock, then he pounded the table with his fists and let loose a loud curse. He was going to say something else, but then his forehead slammed against the table surface, by accident or on-purpose unclear, and he fell to the ground, dragging a couple debens with him.

"Be a dear and get those for me, well you?" Teana asked, giving Nesu a curt smile.

Nesu bent down to grab the three coins that had fallen to the floor. The door to the room opened, a girl in a simple white cloth robe holding a large mug filled to the brim.

"Who called for the-"

"You might wanna keep that one," Basa suggested, motioning her away.

Meanwhile, in quick succession, Teana had stacked all the gold from the pot in front of her, now the stack leader by a considerable margin, over two thousand debens at her disposal.

.

"Princes and Viziers," Teana announced, revealing her two cards to the table before reaching forward to take the three hundred deben pot.

"Aw man, that trio-pair you pulled earlier should have used up all your luck today," Seker said disdainfully as he threw his cards into the middle.

"That was like twenty hands ago," Ramses pointed out. "Luck can rebuild itself over the course of a long game."

"Or in some cases, never show up at all." Basa turned to look at the sleeping Seb, who had fallen out of the game several hands ago and had immediately fallen dead asleep.

"Alright, I have the deck," Ramses said, taking it and shuffling. Teana could see the glint in his eye. He had dealt straight the last couple times, but Teana knew something big was coming.

"I can barely see you over your coin stack," Basa said, looking at Teana, who was partially concealed behind nearly two thousand five hundred debens, mostly the large, ten-deben coins. "Shame too, you've got a very pretty face."

"Sorry, Basa," Teana said sardonically. "Not in the market for a boyfriend."

Ramses dealt the cards out, and Teana took a look at hers. Pyramid Teacher and Pyramid God.

"Alright," Ramses motioned to Ptei.

"Wager fifty," Ptei said, pressing a handful of coins to the center.

"Match," Nesu and Seker announced in quick succession. Basa contemplated his cards, pursed his lips, then flicked them back over to Ramses.

Ramses looked around the table, humming to himself, before discarding his two cards. "Never seen a deck go more cold than this one tonight." His gold stack was down to two hundred.

"Match," Teana said after thinking for a second, pushing five ten-deben coins to the center.

"Alright, here we go," Ramses announced, burning a card off to the side before placing down three. Pyramid General, Pyramid Priest, Djed Pharaoh.

"Wager a hundred," Ptei said immediately.

"Feeling aggressive?" Nesu said, tossing his cards over to Ramses. "I'm out."

"I'll match that," Seker decided, throwing ten coins to the center.

Without a second of hesitation, Teana matched the hundred deben bet, pushing more gold to the center.

"Oh, you'll regret that one, girlie," Ptei said, grinning as Ramses burned a card.

The next came up. Was Farmer.

"Good things come to those who wait," Ptei said, grabbing more of his coins and tossing them to the pot. "I wager a full hundred."

"Nothing good is gonna come out of this for you." Seker matched the hundred deben bet.

"Re-raise another hundred," Teana announced flatly, making a two hundred deben contribution to the pot.

Ptei made a move to his gold, then hesitating just before touching it. He looked back at his cards slowly, then took a draw out of his mug of beer as he glared at Teana.

"Monifa," Ptei said thoughtfully. "Monifa. I'll put your name to the test." He matched the hundred deben bet. "Enjoy the tall stack, you won't have it much longer."

"You're right, but not for the reasons you're thinking, I match," Seker said, making the required donation of gold.

"Match," Teana said simply, glaring right at Ptei as Ramses made to deal the final card.

Pyramid Nobleman.

"Wager a hundred," Ptei said the moment the card hit the table, all thought of subtlety out the window.

"Re-raise a hundred," Seker said instantly, pushing the remainder of the gold he had left in front of him to the pot.

"Don't think you're scaring me out of this hand," Ptei said, pointing at Seker. "As soon as the girl makes her move, I'm matching that."

Teana thought about calling out their idiocy, but decided she'd settle for knocking both of them out of the game would settle.

"Match," she uttered, making the two hundred deben push.

"I'm in!" Ptei said, tossing his gold to the center and throwing down his cards. "Two pairs, generals and priests."

Seker laughed. "Not your day, friend." He threw down his two cards, a pair of Pharaohs. "Three Pharaohs."

Ptei just barely had time for his face to fall before Teana revealed her cards.

"That's...let's see, I believe that's five Pyramid cards, giving me the type-set, and the hand." Teana immediately reached forward to grab the mound of gold.

"Son of a-" Seker spat, eyes darting over the cards. "You little-"

"Sorry, I can't hear you over my giant stack of gold," Teana said quickly, immediately stacking her coins up in front of her. She now had more than everyone else at the table combined.

"This goddamn girl!" Ptei spat. "Every time-"

"Still can't hear you!" Teana announced, pointing at her mound of coins. "Sorry, we'll talk later!"

.

"Well, so much for the winning streak," Ramses muttered, pushing himself off the chair and walking away from the table, not a single gold deben left in front left.

_Ramses just finished bleeding to death off of pre-card bets. But his two rigged hands he dealt me were more than enough to put me in firm control of the game. Now it's just me and Basa, and he's got less than five hundred gold debens left._

Teana put in twenty debens, Basa put in fourty, and Teana dealt.

Teana peaked at her Was Farmer and Pyramid Vizier, then looked up to Basa.

"I'll raise fifty," Basa said, putting five large gold pieces in.

"Out," Teana said immediately, discarding her cards. Basa pounded his fists on the table, grimaced, then tossed his cards back to her as he scooped up the meager pot. "Don't make it so obvious next time."

"This girl has a mouth on her," Basa grumbled, glancing over at Ramses. "I'm not sure about these people you associate with." He took the meager pot.

Teana handed Basa the deck, then anted fourty debens. Basa went in with twenty, then shuffled a few times before dealing out the cards.

Teana checked her two cards. Djed Prince and Was Queen.

"I'll pass," she said, tapping the table with her right index finger.

Basa scratched the back of his head a few times, then reached forward to place a hundred debens into the middle. "I wager a hundred."

Teana glared at him hard, hand stroking the gold mound in front of her. Finally, she pushed in two hundred gold debens. "Re-raise to two hundred."

Basa grimaced, looking around the room as if there would be something to save him. Finally, he sighed and pushed in another hundred debens. "Play them out."

Teana burned a card, then set three down. Ankh Queen, Djed Nobleman, Was Fisherman.

Basa clapped his hands together and squeezed, knuckles turning white, before he pushed in a hundred gold debens. "I'd get out of this one if I were you."

"Thankfully, you're not me," Teana said immediately. "I'm pushing you all in, re-raise to two hundred." She made the wager.

Basa inhaled, then grabbed his mug for another large swig. "Alright, fine!" He said through gritted teeth, pushing every last bit of gold he had left to the center. With no point to hide his cards left, he revealed he had two Viziers. Teana flipped hers over, revealing that she controlled the hand with a pair of Queens.

"C'mon, c'mon," Basa muttered as Teana burned a card. Teana flipped the fourth over. A Priest. Basa swore under his breath as Teana burned another card, then pulled the fifth out.

Farmer. No help to anyone.

"Ra!" Basa shouted, pounding the table surface with his fist. "How did...how-"

"If you stopped drinking, maybe you'd remember," Teana said coolly, pulling the gold towards her. "It was a pleasure, gentlemen." She turned and gave a mock bow towards the rest of the players, who were half-passed out around the room.

"Ptei!" Teana snapped, getting him to open his eyes and look around the room. "This is your house, is it not?"

Ptei nodded languidly, trying to remember where he was as he looked at the half-conscious bodies around him.

"Thank you for your hospitality," Teana said sweetly. "I'd like to change my gold out for hundred-deben coins, please."

Ptei jumped to his feet and gave his head a good shake. "Little bitch, comes in here, takes our money and-"

"Hey, Ptei!" Ramses interrupted. "This how you treat your guests?"

Ptei looked around helplessly, scowling, but finally sighed and walked up to the table. "Alright, let me...let me talk to my father."

.

"It's not that special," Ramses said as the two of them walked down the sand road through town, the streets mostly empty, the sun having gone down quite some time ago. Teana was holding a single gold coin up in front of her. About equal in size as the ten-deben coins, the hundred-deben coins were marked as special by the small diamond embedded right in the center of the coin. Only specialized equipment could reliably stick the diamond in the coin so that it wouldn't fall out. They were rare, typically only the rich had them.

"You see them all of the time, I never see them," Teana replied, holding it up and staring right at the tiny diamond.

"Put it away before someone sees. Last thing we need after that game is to get robbed," Ramses said, grabbing her wrist and pulling her hand down. Teana dropped it back into her bag.

"Seventy of them. Too good to be true," Teana mused quietly. "Never thought I'd score like that."

"Quick, let's hold hands," Ramses said, holding his right hand out at his side. "Looks less suspicious, less chance of a mugger."

"Who says?" Teana asked, regarding Ramses's hand with mild disgust.

"I say, now take it," Ramses insisted.

Teana reached over and took it with her left, giving a mock look of disgust.

"Oh knock it off," Ramses said. "Twenty of those coins are mine, by the way."

"Of course," Teana answered. "Your nefarious deeds don't come cheap."

"So, we get up bright and early tomorrow, head into this side of town to pick up some things. New dress, new sandals, maybe a headdress, rent some jewelry, whatever it takes. All day process, so don't even think about picking up a deck of cards tomorrow. Next day, we tidy you up, and by the evening for the party you'll be the most beautiful girl in all of Egypt. It's time for you, for the first time in your life, to feel like a lady." Ramses squeezed her hand.

"You know...sticking five thousand debens into my savings would be a nice help." Teana looked up at the sky.

"Don't even think about it," Ramses threatened.

.

"No, that's all wrong," Seben said, dismissively waving the dress Ramses was holding away. "Think about who's wearing it. Teana is a large-chested, small-waisted, medium-bottomed woman."

"Medium-bottomed?" Teana repeated, raising an eyebrow at Seben, seated on one of the large stools along the back end of the dress shop, hands on her knees.

"Well, yeah," Seben said, glancing down at Teana's rear end. "We want something that complements those features. She doesn't need all those frills and laces, something elegant and simple will allow her natural beauty to radiate through."

Teana felt herself go slightly red. "T-thank you," she stammered.

"I like this one," Amam said, bringing forward a sleeveless blue dress with a golden collar.

"See, this kid gets it!" Seben said. "That's nice, I like it, Teana you wanna throw it on?"

Teana got up, stretching her back out as Amam brought the dress to her. She took it and looked it over.

"I like it, let's see." She moved towards one of the side rooms.

"Taho, go check the sandals, bring something...gold, to go with the collar!" Seben commanded, pointing towards the other side of the shop.

"Ah, actually..." Teana beckoned Seben to come forward, then pulled her against the wall and leaned into her ear.

"What's up?" She asked.

"It's just...my feet are sort of rough, and the burns...if people at the party see that, they'll get suspicious." Teana glanced around. "I see some wealthy people wear...well, they cover the whole foot, I think that's what I need."

"Slippers?" Seben raised an eyebrow. "Yeah, sure, anything you want."

.

"I really like how it shows your arms," Seben said, looking Teana up and down. She had slipped into the blue dress, and it had proved to suit her perfectly well, especially with the pair of gold slippers on her feet. The two of them were looking over a large table of jewelry.

"The ones over here are too big," Teana said, pointing at some bracelets on the left side. "They look like something nobility would wear."

"I want, for you, a bracelet and a ring. Just one of each." Seben clapped her hands together and looked around on the table.

"Miss," a clerk said, coming up to the two of them. "You are more than welcome to try on the dresses, but I ask you not wear them around the shop unless you plan to buy them."

Teana looked at Seben, a grin poking out of her face, then she looked at the clerk. "I'm buying it. The dress and the slippers." To her surprise, she sounded delighted.

"Excellent!" The Clerk said. "Oh, today must be very special for you. Well, let me go check on that." She ran off.

"Look at this, a gold band with small sapphires along the outer edge," Seben said, holding a bracelet up to Teana.

Teana grabbed it and opened it up, slipping it on and letting it close on her right wrist.

"Goes with the dress perfectly," Seben said, grabbing her hand and putting it up next to her shoulders to compare.

"Well, then I think we should get a ring with the same color scheme." Teana ran her hands over the top of the pile of jewelry before pulling a small golden ring with a sapphire in the center out. "This is just right."

"Maybe we can get a bigger sapphire?" Seben suggested.

Teana shook her head. "If I look too rich, people will ask why they've never seen me before. I need to look I'm a generic only child of a semi-wealthy merchant."

"Alright, ladies, the dress is two fifty, and the slippers are fifty." The clerk came back up behind them. "And will you be buying those as well?" she asked, pointing at the bracelet and ring as Teana slipped the ring onto her right hand's fourth finger.

"Actually, we're looking to rent them tomorrow and return them the next day," Seben said quickly.

"Ah, yes, well, I need to remind you two that our business is backed by the palace, and if you fail to return the jewelry in a prompt fashion you will be branded as criminals and can face up to a five thousand deben fine and up to ten years in prison." The Clerk nodded.

"Of course," Teana said briskly. "We'll pick these two up tomorrow."

"It'll be a hundred to rent the bracelet, and fifty for the ring."

.

"I feel like a huge dork," Teana said. She was reclined out on a cushioned bench, face up, staring up at the ceiling. A woman was applying a thick coat of honey to her face, using her fingers to wipe it over her face.

"I've heard the royal ladies get this done every single day," Ramses said, sitting next to her, watching the treatment with great interest.

"I'm having second thoughts," Teana muttered as the honey was rubbed onto her forehead.

"It's just an antibacterial," the lady explained.

"Oh, so it gets worse?" Teana asked.

"After this, I'll apply some fenugreek oil to help improve the skin's condition. Would you like it done on your arms and legs as well?"

"Yes, she would," Seben chimed in.

"Seben, I thought you were my friend," Teana said bitterly. "You're one of the few girls left in section six, you're supposed to be on my side."

"I am on your side, sweetie," Seben said. "You'll thank me later."

"Now, I notice you have burns on your feet," the lady said. "We have a combination of red ochre, kohl and sycamore juice that can hide those."

Teana hesitated. "I don't like people touching my feet."

"She'd love to have that," Seben insisted.

"I'm starting to feel I should be getting paid for this," Teana muttered. And yet, though she wouldn't admit it in a million years no matter how much you tortured her, she was starting to enjoy it.

A few moments later, Teana felt a thick paste slowly being applied to the soles of her feet. She twitched and fought the urge to pull her foot up, stiffling giggles that threatened to flood out.

"Oh my, is the big, tough, strong Teana ticklish?" Ramses teased, poking her shoulder.

"I'm going to kill you and destroy everything you own," Teana said, knuckles going white as she fought to keep her leg out straight as the thick past was applied to the outside edge of her foot.

.

"My skin doesn't have wrinkles, what's the point?" Teana whined as the wax-like substance was applied to her face.

"It helps prevent wrinkles, dear," the lady replied.

"Unless I was going to develop wrinkles in the next half-day, that's really not a concern!" Teana hissed.

"Do you ever stop jabbering?" Ramses asked.

"Why are you even here?" Teana asked, glaring at Ramses out of the corner of her eye.

"I wouldn't miss watching this for the world," Ramses said, smirking.

"I love the yellow on your nails," Seben said, looking at Teana's right hand. Henna had been used to color the nails.

The lady started to apply some slick, slippery oil to Teana's foot. Teana twitched and shook before laying back, moaning. "Not again!"

"Come on, Teana, relax! It's supposed to feel good," Seben patted the top of her head lightly.

"It's torture!" Teana yelped, fighting the instinctive each to kick away from the much larger lady servicing her.

"I never thought that _this_ would be what broke through the icy tough barrier around you," Ramses said.

"Shut your mouth," Teana said through gritted teeth. "I should be getting paid for this."

.

Teana was now on her front, face down into a small depression on the bench. A tall, muscular woman was driving the point of her elbow right into a spot on her back.

"Sometimes, the evil God Seth curses our human bodies with aches and pains," the woman explained, applying pressure with her elbow. "These curses manifest themselves as little lumps underneath the skin. With enough pressure, the lumps can be pushed out, and the body restored to the condition it would be in without Seth's interference."

"Can't say they've been...bothering me," Teana gasped, as the elbow continued to dig into her back.

"They're a silent killer, those curses. But we get rid of them." She grabbed Teana's shoulders and kneaded them, large hands squishing her shoulders in their strong grip.

Teana grunted and moaned, eyelids flickering.

"See?" That feels good, doesn't it?" Seben said, grinning as she watched.

.

"A light coating, please, I don't want the makeup to distract from her own beauty!" Seben ordered.

Teana was now sitting up in a chair, the lady holding a small stick with some kohl on the end. She applied it around Teana's eyes, Teana holding very still.

"Oh, it's going to be so great," Seben said, clapping her hands together in glee. "You're going to love it."

.

Teana emerged from behind the curtain, to oohs and aahs from everyone present. She was wearing her new dress, the flowing silk of the fabric cascading down her body and stopping at her ankles, feet clad in the gold slippers. The golden bracelet was around her right wrist, as was the gold ring around her right fourth finger.

Her skin was glowing, rendered fresh by the treatments, and her eyes had been accentuated by a light application of makeup. She looked down at herself and couldn't help smiling.

"Okay guys," Teana said reluctantly as she walked out next to her friends. "I guess it was worth it."

"You look amazing," Seben said, patting her on the back. Ramses gave her a thumbs up.

"I like it," Teana admitted, looking down towards the bottom of her dress. "Well, I think I have a party to get to."


	4. I Feel Like A Woman

Chapter 4: I Feel Like A Woman

.

"Alright, here's where we depart," Seben said, patting Teana on the back and smiling. They were just a block away from the palace entrance. "Have fun tonight. Whatever comes up, go for it. This is the best night of your life, take advantage."

"Thank you, everyone," Teana said, turning around to look at her friends. "Thank you for all your help."

"See you in there," Ramses said, walking past her. "I'll go first. Follow in a bit."

"Just one thing, Teana," Seben said as Ramses disappeared around the corner. "When you get back, I want you to promise to me that you'll tell me everything. Promise me you'll be honest and tell me everything that happened in there."

"Of course," Teana replied, flattening the front of her dress. "You'll know everything."

"Eat as much as you can," Seben added. "I've heard stories about the food in there."

Teana took in a deep breath, then stepped out and walked down the mostly deserted street towards the palace gate. Six guards were patrolling right in front of the large metal path protector. She could feel her stomach twist slightly with nerves.

Casually, she strolled up to them, forcing a pleasant smile on her face.

"No escort?" one of the guards questioned, looking around. "Quite unusual for a lady of stature."

_Great. I couldn't even get through the front door and I'm already dead. I knew this was a bad idea._

Teana smiled warmly. "No. Not today. Just me."

"Well, all the same to me. So long as you have one of two things." The guard raised his right hand up.

Teana slowly pulled a small bag from her hip pocket. She had traded out her gold coins for small diamonds at a trade shop, and it only took a handful of diamonds to equal four thousand gold debens. She handed the small sack to the guard, who took it and peered inside.

"We've had a couple people try to give us four thousand single deben gold pieces," the guard muttered, handing the sack to a guard behind him. "Can't believe some people. Take that inside."

The guard ran off and the gate slowly slid open.

"Have a wonderful night," the guard said, bowing and stepping to the side. Teana gave a small curtsy, praying she wouldn't mess it up somehow.

She passed through the gate, immediately taken by how the palace courtyard seemed to be an entirely different country from the rest of the city. There was actual flora beyond the desert, trees she had never seen before towering over everything all along the walls. People were already walking around between long tables set up across the sands, food Teana had never even dreamed of covering every inch of table surface. Servants were patrolling around carrying circular trays with goblets on them.

Before she could step out into the action, two guards approached her from either side.

"Hands up, please," one of them demanded. She complied meekly as the two of them started to run their hands all over her torso. She squirmed uncomfortably, going red, but the process was over before she knew it.

"Enjoy the party," the guard instructed, and she stepped into the thin crowd of nobles and wealth.

"Keep it together," Teana whispered to herself. "You look just like a wealthy merchant's daughter. They have no reason to think otherwise."

She slowly walked between the first two tables, stopping to grab a handful of grapes as she listened to the conversations around here.

"It's so stressful, hearing the reports of bad weather and shipwrecks to the west. I have ships out there carrying six figures worth of gold debens! It's a nightmare. If they wreck, well, I might not be at this party next year, I'll tell you that much."

"It's all about real estate right now, I'm telling you. You know how much empty desert there is outside the city? In all directions, an unthinkable amount, you can buy it up for next to nothing! As long as you can get a workforce together to build, you're basically turning sand into gold! Population numbers are rising, lifespans are getting longer, there is a high demand for houses right now. We need to move on this!"

"It's unbelievable. You know how much time and effort has to go into importing these plants? They don't grow anywhere in this country, I'll tell you that."

Teana grabbed a thin, carved wooden stick that had large hunks of meat all along the shaft and started to slowly eat off of it. Her heartrate slowed as she took the environment in, the realization that she had passed through undetected washing over her. There was nothing to be afraid of anymore.

She could hear the light, lilting sounds of music being played from somewhere in the courtyard, just barely about to make out the tune. She closed her eyes and took in a deep breath.

She opened her eyes and took a goblet from a passing servant, immediately testing the strange liquid with her tongue. Over a couple tables, she saw Ramses talking with some of the other partygoers, instantly weaving his way into their world with what was no doubt a memorable string of lies. Not the path she was planning to take.

.

"How many courses are there?" Teana whispered to herself as a series of platters, mostly empty, were pulled from the tables by rows of servants. As far as she was concerned, meals had only one course, and she was near the bursting point from all the food that was coming out.

"That was the last one."

Teana spun around and nearly jumped out of her own skin. She wasn't well versed in the culture of modern Egypt, as such knowledge did nothing to help her support her section six family, but even she knew who this was. The wild, multi-colored hair, the ornate outfit with jewels every place jewels could be kept...this was the man who was a single death away from being the most powerful man on earth. None other than the Prince of Egypt, Atem.

Her first instinct was to kneel, but that flashed away. The Prince had been walking throughout the party for the entire night so far and nobody was kneeling. She had no idea what would be considered appropriate. It would seem that nothing would suffice, and yet it seemed so very disrespectful.

Apparently, standing there in shock was enough for him. The Prince smiled.

"Of course, a dessert will be coming out soon, pudding and other things, but that won't be for awhile. Now, I'm curious, I feel like I would have remembered seeing you before, and yet I feel like we've never met, can you explain that to me?" Atem leaned in towards her.

_He knows. He knows everything. I need to confess and beg for mercy._

Teana swallowed hard, returning the smile and putting her hands behind her back.

_No. I promised myself I wouldn't go out on my knees._

"I'm what they, distastefully I hear, refer to as new wealth," Teana explained, making full eye contact with Atem and not wavering in the slightest. "Very new, in fact."

"Ah, spendid, I love a good success story!" Atem took a goblet from a passing servant and raised it up in the air. "Do tell."

"My father finally made a breakthrough in real estate," Teana continued. "A handful of moon cycles ago. He's not exactly the talk of the town yet, but the old man finally figured out how to make gold off of housing. It took him long enough."

"Oh, lovely," Atem said, sipping from the goblet. "Egypt always welcomes new wealth, my dear..."

"Teana," she replied, reasoning this was one time where she could let her real name slip.

"Well, Teana, wealth suits you well, you look simply lovely." Atem looked her up and down. "Whoever put together that outfit did spectacularly."

Teana felt herself going slightly red. She nodded. "Thank you."

_The lies flow out of me as naturally as the air I breathe. I don't know why I was so scared. It's in my profession to be a master of bluffing others, royalty or not. In a matter of seconds I put together a believable story that can't be proven wrong, at least not within the next several days. As impressive as any great hand of cards I've won._

"Where is your father?" Atem looked around. "I'd very much like to meet him."

"And him meet you, unfortunately he's very busy and couldn't make it tonight. It's just me," Teana answered.

"Pity," Atem grunted. "Well, I suppose I should introduce myself now."

"You require no introduction," Teana said quickly. "Prince of the finest country in all the world, soon to be the most powerful man on the planet."

"That about sums it up," Atem agreed. "So, tell me about yourself while we wait for dessert."

Teana clenched her hands together behind her. Every second this conversation went on was another second where she could let something slip and wind up with her head on a chopping block.

"Not much to say," Teana replied coolly. "I spent a lot of time right on the middle rung of society as my father floundered through a series of mediocre career paths. I'd rather not talk about such a time, very much dull and unsatisfying."

"Well, how about now?" Atem put his arms out to his sides. "Enough excitement for you?"

"Oh yes," Teana answered. "They say wealth can't buy happiness, but I suspect it gets you most of the way there."

"Could you stand a little more excitement, you think?" Atem glanced around, then thrust his right hand towards Teana. She looked down at it, not moving, then looked back up to the Prince. "Take it."

Tenatively, Teana reached out with her right hand and grabbed it. Atem slowly started to walk across the courtyard, Teana flanking him.

"As a member of the royal family, I am often able to get whatever I want if I'm forward in my requests. So I'm going to be forward with you now. You've caught my eye, Teana. And I'd very much like to pull you away from the party to show you my private garden," Atem whispered.

Teana could feel some sweat bead out on the palms of her hands and her forehead.

_So much for bluffing. He's taking me away from the party to have me killed without disturbing the guests. Stupid Ramses and his stupid suggestions. I knew I should have ignored him._

"B-but, the guests, don't you need to-"

"My father and mother have to entertain the guests, but I am not bound by any such social contract," Atem explained, smirking. "Please, come. It would make me very happy."

Teana took in a long breath, willing herself to stay composed. If this was to be the end, she would go out with dignity and honor.

"Very well, Prince Atem, let's see your garden." She smiled and squeezed his hand.

The two of them walked through the courtyard and past a few rows of guards down a stone path towards an empty area behind the palace.

"It takes a lot of effort, and gold, to keep a place like this going," Atem said slyly, leading her towards a large hut in the middle of the backyard. "But when you're me, such things mean nothing."

Atem grabbed the door handle and yanked it open, motioning for her to step in. She did so, letting go of his hand and taking a stiff step in.

To her surprise, and relief, the room was a literal garden, of plants and trees not of these lands. Here, the foilage was much thicker and varied when compared to outside. Hardly a place someone would choose to stage a private execution.

"It's beautiful," Teana said, walking up to one of the bushes near the entrance and letting her finger play across one of the leaves.

"Isn't it?" Atem asked rhetorically. "Not very many people get to see this. It's something of a private collection of mine."

"Well, lucky me." Teana looked over at a thick, dark brown tree near the center of the chamber. Atem came up behind her and rested his hands on her shoulders. She twitched and spun her head around to look up at the taller Prince. Atem simply smiled and guided her towards the tree.

"You ever seen anything like this in your life?" Atem asked.

"No, I haven't," Teana admitted, letting herself be lightly pushed towards the center of the room.

"There's something very...special about you, Teana." Atem paused. "I must confess, ever since you walked through the gates, I've been watching you. I've been quite unable to take my eyes off you."

Teana tried to find a quick, witty reply, but whatever words she could think of died in her throat. They came to the tree, and Teana felt Atem applying a light pressure to her shoulders. Teana sat down on the floor, Atem joining her at her right side. Teana could hardly believe this series of events was playing out. Her face was going a dark red.

"Lost for words?" Atem asked, smirking. "Understandable. Things are different here amongst royalty. We have no long, extended courting processes. I see a woman I like, and I simply take her."

Teana managed a strangled yelp, then decided to shut her mouth until she trusted her vocal chords again.

"So, as soon as humanly possible, I'd like to meet your father. With my influence, he'll become one of the most powerful real estate moguls in Egypt."

Teana nodded mutely, putting her clenched hands in her lap.

"Can I see your feet?" Atem asked, putting his legs out in front of him and patting his thighs.

Teana sat there, eyes going wide, staring stupidly at the Prince.

"I won't hurt them or anything, I'd just like to see them. Please?" Atem patted his lap again.

Slowly, inch by inch, Teana unfurled her legs from beneath her and held them straight out so her feet were resting in his lap. Words continued to fail her, but she knew nothing good would come of denying a request from the Prince.

"I'm sorry, this must be very confusing." Atem grabbed her right foot and slowly pulled the gold slipper off of it. Teana tensed up, knuckles going white. "There's only really one way to say this. I like feet. And I want to see yours. Don't tell anyone, my father says it's degrading and embarrassing." He shrugged. "And he's usually right about these things. Don't tell him I said that."

_Great. I'm dead. Dead. The one thing that could unravel my disguise, and he has it right in his lap. I'm going to be the girl who was executed because the Prince of Egypt inspected her bare feet. I knew this party was a bad idea._

He pulled both slippers off, Teana nervously clenching her toes.

"Try to relax," Atem said quietly. "I promise I'm not gonna hurt you."

Taking in a deep breath, Teana unclenched her toes, and twitched as Atem's smooth fingers started stroking the tops of her feet. Her stomach was a bundle of knots as his hands went over her soles, not even reacting to the strokes over her sensitive spots.

"You could stand to...take better care of them," Atem said slowly, rolling her toes around between his strong, long fingers. Teana nodded, not making a sound. "Hm. Some burns?" He ran over a patch of the past that had been applied earlier that day to cover it up. "What a shame."

Teana closed her eyes, waiting for the other shoe to drop, dreading what would come next.

"Accidents happen," Atem said casually. "Keep treating them and they'll go away."

In an instant, every bit of tension left Teana's body as if it was a large expulsion of breath. She was fine. More than fine. There was no reason to be worried at all. These royals would never suspect that a peasant girl could fake her way into this party. What was she so worried about.

Atem smiled up at her, then his left index nail scraped the ball of her foot. She jerked her foot back away from him, then covered her face with her hands, allowing a feeling of deep embarrassment to come over her. She giggled lightly and peeked at the prince through her fingers.

Slowly, he grabbed her right ankle, lifted her foot up, and put a soft kiss on the top of it before slipping her slipper back on. She went a further shade of red at this, but she had to admit...she really liked it. He repeated the process with her left, leaving her seated there, shocked into silence and nearly blood red in the face.

_He could have said anything right then and I would have gone for it. I would have gone for anything. He could have asked for three straight days of passionate wild sex, could have asked to do disgusting and perverted things with my feet...I would have gone for it, and I would have relished it. This man had me. Every last bit of me._

_My name is Teana. Peasant girl hardened by the hard experiences of life, fighting tooth and nail to make it in a man's world. And I am making a complete ass of myself in front of the Prince. And I don't even care._

"How are they?" Teana asked, regaining her voice finally.

"Take care of them and they will be fantastic," Atem said, standing up, then reaching his arm out. Teana grabbed his hand and he pulled her up.

"Thank you. I will." Teana nodded. "So..."

"Dessert?" Atem asked, pointing out towards the door to the garden. "If you'd like, I could have it delivered here and we could enjoy it together in private."

Teana blinked a few times, still flushed red and approaching a boiling point. "When you say dessert, Prince, you mean like...pudding, right?" She immediately wanted to smack herself in the face over saying something that sounded so stupid, but she settled for awkwardly smiling and waiting for Atem's response.

Atem sighed. "Yes, I think so. My father has told me that when you really like a girl, you don't have sex with her as soon as you meet her." He hesitated, looking around the garden. "He's usually right about these things."

Teana started at him in silence, trying to find the right response, again nothing coming. Atem gave a small smile.

"I know. Commoners are often...surprised at how human us royals are." Atem shrugged. "Don't tell anyone that either."

She nodded. Atem patted her on the back. "Well, the night's winding down. We should go back out to the party."

Teana took one step towards the door, then felt Atem put his hands on her back. "Wait! He's not...my father's not...always right. I mean, most is not always."

Teana just stood there, feeling Atem give her shoulder a light squeeze.

"No, he's right. It's classy, it's...sophisticated. We'll have dinner together in a few days, get to know each other better before...yes, that's the way to do things. I can meet your father, we can talk business..." He spun her around and looked right at her. "Three days?"

Teana bit her lower lip. "Oh, Atem, I'd love to, I really would...this is awful timing, I'm so sorry."

"What's wrong?" Atem asked, leaning in towards her.

"My father's going to Israel for business tomorrow. I've always wanted to visit Israel, since I was little, he's taking me. I can't be here in three days," she said, looking away and frowning.

"Oh...Teana, forget Israel. Your father won't have to leave his house unless he wants to after I'm done with his business, he doesn't have to go to...Israel," Atem looked around. "Come on, you have my word, I'll make your father the most successful man in the country, forget Israel."

"It's very important to him," Teana replied sadly. "It's more than just business, there's personal stuff too."

"Tell him to put the trip off for a moon cycle or two, and I'll send him there with a thousand man caravan if he wants." Atem looked at her unblinkingly. "Look, I'm a young man, I don't know everything about the way the world works...but I've never quite felt like this before. Maybe that doesn't mean anything, but it sure feels like it does. Don't leave me now."

"Me too," Teana said. "I've never felt like this before either, I swear, but...it's a bad time." Teana looked around furtively, selling her disappointment perfectly. "We'll see each other when I get back. Come on, you have my word, we'll see each other again when I get back."

"That could be months..." Atem trailed off sadly. "I don't know if I can wait that long-"

"Atem, please. Just let me take this trip. The time will fly, I'll be back in no time, you'll hardly know I'm gone." Teana let her eyes water slightly.

Atem grimaced. "When will you be back?"

"I-I don't know, Atem. It depends, there are so many variables-"

"Teana, I am _not_ letting you leave until you tell me when I can see you again." Atem gripped her shoulders tightly, not to the point of pain but not too far off. "Fill in the blank, Teana. We will see each other again in blank. What's the blank?"

Teana's eyes darted around for a few seconds. "W-well...three moon cycles."

"Three moon cycles? That's nearly a hundred days, Teana, I don't know if I can last that long."

"Don't make me lie," Teana pleaded. "That's the best promise I can make. Three moon cycles, a hundred days. It's a long trip and...Ra knows what will come up once we're there."

Atem sighed heavily. "Well...the anticipation will make the experience better. Very well, three moon cycles. I'd hate to deprive you of an anticipated experience." He nodded, then forced a smile.

"We should go now." Teana turned away from the Prince.

"If I don't see you again in three moon cycles, I'll tear this country apart looking for you," Atem said warningly. "And if I don't find you then, I'll tear Israel apart. We'll meet again."

"Yes, Prince, I promise it. We will."

.

Teana stood in front of the door to her hut in section six, panting heavily, drooping down to her put hands on her knees. She didn't remember eating pudding, or the royal family saying goodbye to the party guests. She remembered running all the way home, a dead sprint, for a reason that made sense to her at the time but didn't now. She felt her heart beating as rapidly as it had ever beat as she attempted to calm herself down.

Finally, she stood straight up and grabbed the handle on her door, pushing it open and stepping in.

"Oh, you're alive?"

"AACK!" Teana screeched, coming within millimeters of swinging her fist right into Ramses's face. He leaned back to avoid it casually, smiling.

"Well, then there's only one other explanation. How is the Prince in bed?" Ramses asked, smiling widely.

Teana cocked her fist back and punched Ramses right in the cheek, knocking him flat to the floor. As soon as he hit the ground, Seben jumped out from outside her line of vision and embraced her in a big hug. Awkwardly, she returned it.

"Oh, Teana, how was it?" Seben asked, squeezing her tightly. "Did you have fun?"

Teana sighed heavily, pushing her off. "This was the...craziest night of my life." She ambled over towards the middle of the room, collapsing into her cushioned chair. "Absolutely nuts."

"How was the food? The music? The entertainment? Come on, you have to give me more than that!" Seben insisted, kneeling down in front of her and bending over to take her slippers off.

"It was fantastic, all of that," Teana said. "I'll never eat that well again in my life, I can promise that, absolutely amazing, the...music, great. Oh man." She closed her eyes and sunk into the cushions.

"Ramses said he saw you and the Prince going off alone behind the palace," Seben said, looking behind her at Ramses, who was slowly gathering himself and standing back up. "What happened?"

"Oh. Yeah, that," Teana said absentmindedly. "Speaking of that, please don't touch my feet right now, it's...uh, now's not a good time for that."

Seben stood back up, staring right at her best friend. "Well? Details! You promised!"

"Yeah, I did. Okay, so..." suddenly, she looked at Ramses. "How'd you get here before me anyway? I ran the whole way home."

"I stepped out after dessert. The Pharaoh's speech, boring, no thanks, I'll pass on that one." Ramses rubbed his cheek. "And I'm fine, by the way, thanks for asking."

"Well...I did promise the truth, didn't I?" Teana shook her head. "He...well, he-"

"He took her out back and they went at each other like animals in heat," Ramses said, shaking himself off. "Come on, this isn't exactly a great mystery."

"I don't wanna get up," Teana whined. "Seben, go punch him again."

"Well, then what happened?" Seben asked, ignoring her request.

"He showed me his personal private garden." Teana closed her eyes again. "Like a literal garden, with plants."

"...and?" Seben pressed, raising an eyebrow. "Don't make me beg, Teana, tell me!"

"And...and, the garden was very beautiful and lush." Teana scratched her forehead a few times. "I know I promised, but I'd really rather take this stuff to the grave, it's...it's embarrassing!"

"You promised!" Seben pouted.

Teana sighed. "...and the Prince is a nutjob." She covered her face with her hands.

"Alright, royal gossip. Hit me with something juicy!" Ramses clapped a few times.

Teana glared at him for a few seconds, but then continued. "He...apparently he was...stalking me during the whole party, and then he finally went up to talk to me. He said he...liked me, based on what I couldn't tell you, and invited me to his private garden. He kept talking about how he liked me and...oh Ra, do I really have to tell you?"

Seben nodded sternly.

"He...played with my feet," Teana said, going red yet again, reclining back on her chair.

"I'm sorry, what?" Ramses said increduously, squinting at Teana.

"He...he likes feet, and he...he said he wanted to see my feet and he...oh Ra, I'm going to die. I was...oh Ra. He played with my feet." Teana sighed heavily.

"That's amazing." Ramses grinned.

"And..he's a...he's a big baby!" Teana looked around the room, peeking through her fingers. "He just met me tonight and he's all...I don't even know. _Oh Teana, every second without your presence is like a thousand daggers through my heart! I can not bear to be without you!_ He's ridiculous, he didn't know I existed until tonight! What a loon!"

"He went head over heels for you?" Seben asked in shock. "Are you serious?"

"Yeah. He took one look at me and...you'd think we'd been married for twenty years!" Teana looked around. "When I was going to leave he started...blathering on like an idiot. He's so...immature and whiny and overdramatic and...and..."

"And?" Ramses goaded. "And?"

"And I don't know," she sighed. "Tonight was...at the same time, the most wonderful and amazing experience I've ever had, the most painfully excruciating experince I've ever had, and the most bizarre, insane experience I've ever had, all at the same time, I can't even begin to process all the emotions I felt tonight."

"Oh, you _liked_ it!" Ramses exclaimed, pointing at Teana. "You liked being the object of Atem's affection! You're into him!"

"Well...I mean, he's the Prince of Egypt, he's...a very powerful man, I mean, I'm not...going to find the man repulsive," Teana said defensively. "A-and, if I didn't, he could have me killed, I have to at least...you know-"

"When's the wedding?" Ramses interrupted, smiling broadly. "I'll rent the most obnoxious clothing I can for it, I promise!"

"Shut up!" Teana shouted. "You know what, he's a ...good looking guy, he's got a certain...way about him."

"Man. Teana, I knew it would take a special man to finally win your heart, but the Prince?" Ramses shook his head.

"He didn't win my heart!" Teana spat, pounding her fist on the armrest of her chair. "I'm just saying it was a...well, I...he sort of took me by surprise and I got..."

"_Ooooh, Prince, please, I beg of you, come back to bed, make me feel like a woman!_" Ramses said mockingly.

"Seben, please, go punch him!" Teana whined, pointing at Ramses.

"_Teana and Atem sitting in a treeeee-_"

"So, anyway!" Teana shouted, getting Ramses to quiet down. "He insisted that we make plans to see each other again."

"Oh wow, when?" Seben asked excitedly.

Teana shook her head. "Seben, darling, get a clue. I told every lie I could think of on the fly until he let me go. I'm lucky I got out of there, really. In case you forgot, I never should have been in that party in the first place, so it's all moot."

"Hey, if he likes you that much, anything's possible!" Seben insisted. "I mean, what'd you tell him?"

"I told him my father was a moderately successful real estate owner, new wealth, and that he was taking me on a business trip to Israel and I'd be gone for the next three months." She sighed. "He bought it. Took some time, but he bought it. He'll forget I exist in three months and it'll be like this whole thing never happened. Thank Ra."

"We can work with that!" Seben said. "Tell him the trip got cancelled."

"Seben!" Teana snapped. "Please! I'm not discussing this. My father's dead, I told the Prince he's a real estate owner. He wants to meet my dad and talk business with him. Which says nothing about the fact that he thinks I'm an upper-class girl, when I in fact live in section six. Which brings us to the most important thing, and the thing that single-handedly makes this not work discussing, which is that I am a peasant and he is a Prince!"

"He clearly likes you," Seben said. "As a Prince, he can make things happen-"

"No." Teana shook her head. "Absolutely not. Besides, he's a nut. And...the way I felt tonight, it was...I don't even know what to call it. I...I felt like a-"

"A woman," Ramses finished. "Come on, that's all it is. You just don't know it, because you never get the chance to feel like a woman. If you really thought about it, you'd admit you enjoyed it. Flushing red, getting all hot, turning giggly and dorky...you like him and you reacted, you're just not used to it."

"Well, whatever it was, I'm done with it." Teana shook her head. "I can't have my mind taken by those thoughts, I have work to do. I'm sure Prince Atem will find himself a perfectly wonderful...princess or noblewoman and forget all about me."

"That is such an old-fashioned way of thinking," Seben muttered. "People from the lower rung of life marry into the royal family all the time!"

"Not from the bottom rung," Teana said with finality. "Look, thanks for helping me with all this, it's been a fascinating evening, but that's all it is. One evening. And I'm going to leave it at that, really."

"Hey," Ramses said, holding his arms out to his side. "At least you did something for yourself. Not just for your friends, not for other people. You did something for your own enjoyment. First time in your life, I swear."

"Hey," Teana said, standing up, walking over to Ramses. "Uh...one thing."

She stood up next to Ramses, hands clasped in front of her.

"Thank you," she said slowly. "This was your idea, and...while this night was both wonderful and awful, all at the same time...it was different. And I needed something different, and this was certainly an experience that I'll never ever duplicate."

"You're most welcome," Ramses said, bowing.

"One other thing," Teana said. She cocked her right fist back and socked him in the cheek again, knocking him to the floor before turning away and walking towards the other room.

"You guys need to have sex and get it over with," Seben joked, shaking her head.

"Good night, Seben," Teana said, retreating into the other room.


	5. The Big Table

Chapter 5: The Big Table

Teana stared up at the ceiling of her house, blinking. She could see the sun coming up out the window out of the corner of her left eye.

_Not a single moment of sleep. Nothing even remotely resembling sleep. How can I sleep after what just happened? How will I ever sleep again?_

She rolled over onto her left side, closing her eyes, then flailing onto her stomach. She licked her lips, then sighed.

"Dammit," she said, pushing herself up off the floor and getting to her feet. "Dammit."

.

_Even though I live in a craphole like section six, I still have resources. When you have a lot of friends, you can generally get the things you need so long as you know who to talk to. And since I'm about to embark on an impossible task, I figure I need all the resources I need. My first stop is Amon-Ra. Good kid, does a lot of reading. _

Teana knocked on the front door, waiting several seconds. She looked around, early morning sun beating down on the sand, baking it to extreme temperatures, par for the course in this area.

_Being in that garden sure makes this place look a hundred times worse._

The door opened, a small boy with thin brown hair poking his head out and immediately smiling.

"Hey Amon-Ra," Teana said quietly. "Parents already gone?"

"Yup!" Amon-Ra answered. "How was the party?"

"Uh, something else," Teana said, walking into the house. "You uh, you got a minute? I got a couple questions."

"Of course, anything, come in."

Teana looked around the blank, bare room, not at all unlike her own, a few chairs in the center the only things of note. She turned to Amon-Ra.

"So...you still read a lot? Ever read about...Egyptian history?" Teana glanced around awkwardly.

"Of course, all the time," Amon-Ra responded. "What's up?"

"Well...my question is...princes and Pharaohs in Egyptian history, who did they...get with?" Teana asked, glancing around nervously.

"Get with?" Amon-Ra repeated.

"Yeah! Like, you know, who did they...uh...meet and...who did they...uh...well, marry. Who did they marry?" Teana relented.

"Oh! Marry, why didn't you say so?" Amon-Ra asked.

"Well, not my favorite word right now, but...it's always Princesses and Queens, right?"

Amon-Ra shook his head. "No, not at all. There aren't enough Princesses and Queens to go around. Maybe in the old days, sure, but now you have inbreeding concerns. There aren't nearly enough royal members out there, it can't always be that good of a fit."

Teana nodded. "Okay, so...I mean, it has to be a person of nobility, right? A woman from a noble family?"

"Most of the time, yes," Amon-Ra agreed. "That's typically where a woman starts out if she's going to marry into the royal family. I mean that's the first place princes look, usually."

"Alright, well. That's probably the answer I needed to hear," Teana said, shrugging. "Thanks."

"Not that that means anything,"

Teana looked at Amon-Ra. "What do you mean?"

"Well, what's a noble family?" Amon-Ra held his hands out. "Think about it, what does it mean to be a noble anyway? A noble family is just a family with a lot of gold, and has had a lot of gold for an extended period of time. If a poor family were to suddenly come into a large amount of gold, they'd become nobles too. So really, it's just about being well-known."

"Well-known?" Teana repeated quizzically.

"Yeah. Someone known by the public. Like, there was this peasant girl, fifty or sixty years ago, nothing special in terms of social status, but she won a beauty contest and was awarded the title of the most beautiful girl in all Egypt. And the Prince at the time, he scooped her up and she went from peasant to Princess just like that."

"So...it's a matter of fame?" Teana said slowly.

"Yeah, I mean...ultimately, gold talks. If you have gold, there's no obstacle you can't just bribe out of your way. As long as you have enough of the shiny yellow stuff, royals will warm right up to you." Amon-Ra shrugged. "It's not as hard as some people think. Not anymore."

"Well, thank you," Teana nodded. "You've been very helpful."

"What's up?" Amon-Ra asked. "Something going on?"

"I'm gonna keep this one close to the chest for now," Teana responded, smiling. "But thank you, you've been a great help." She turned back towards the door.

.

"This is the weirdest thing you've ever asked me," Sap said tenatively, looking the small piece of parchment over. "I don't even know what to say."

"What, is it gonna be really hard or something?" Teana asked. "Is it dangerous?"

"No, it's just...I don't get it." Sap shook his head. "What in your mind? What's going on? Come on, this stuff is...what's the deal?"

"It's...it's nothing, right now." Teana looked around. "I don't want to talk about it, it's...just, please, help me out with this. I'll fill you in when the time is right, just...do this for me?"

"Alright." Sap shrugged. "Man, I...well, I'll take care of it."

"As soon as possible, please," Teana said. "I'm trying to put together something here, something big, and I need this information."

_Sap is a guy who can find out anything. He has friends in town, and if he asks around enough, he can get any information you want. He's a guy who can find things out. Just the man I need right now._

.

Teana sat on the edge of her bed, holding a large piece of parchment supported by a stone slab in her right hand. She pursed her lips, staring at the writing on it.

_I don't know what I'm doing. This is against everything I've ever done. I'm a grinder. Always have been. When you're in my position, you have to be, or you wind up dead real quick. My life has always been about making safe choices that will definitely pan out. Maybe I'll never be wealthy, but I'll get what I need. No risks. And now what am I doing?_

_I can calculate all the figures I want, think about things all I want, and rationalize everything over and over, but there's no getting around the fact that I'm basically playing the lottery. I'm putting all my gold into the pot when I'm holding a farmer and a soldier of different sets. If the me from yesterday afternoon talked to me right now, old me would slap current me._

She heard a knock at the front door, immediately followed by the door swinging open. She rolled her eyes and set the slab down next to her on the bed, standing up slowly. Seconds later, Akiiki strode into the room.

"So, how screwed are we?" he asked quickly, leaning up against the wall to the left of the door entrance.

"Not at all, why do you ask?" Teana replied innocently, putting her hands behind her back and stretching out.

"Don't play dumb!" Akiiki snapped. "Ramses told us everything."

"Of course he did. He's a big jerkoff, he does things like that," Teana said, walking towards Akiiki slowly.

"Well, correct me if I'm wrong. But according to Ramses's telling of the story, we have three moon cycles before the Prince unleashes every soldier in the Egyptian army to hunt you down!" Akiiki shouted. "Now, I'm not one to panic, you know that, but I really think we need to be packing so we can flee for Sudan or something. Maybe further."

"Ramses is just trying to stir stuff up. It's what he does. There's no problem." Teana waved him off. "Calm down."

"W-well, you're gonna have to explain that a little bit," Akiiki stuttered, scowling. "Because as near as I can tell, there's a big problem. Like, we're three moon cycles away from every single person in Egypt hunting you down kind of problem. Why did you have to say three months?"

"It doesn't matter. You guys assume the worst about everything." She leaned up and gave him a quick kiss on the chin. "It's so adorable, seriously." Akiiki went slightly red. "Everything is fine. He'll forget I exist in three months. He may have already forgotten. If he hasn't, he will as soon as he meets another woman."

"You don't know that!" Akiiki insisted. "What if he really is obsessed with you? Then what? What's your plan then?"

Teana sighed, pushing past him out into the main room of her house. "Then he will look for me, not find me, stop looking for me, and we will all go on with our life. At worst, he wastes some taxpayer gold on the search for me. So what?"

"You better have one hell of a hiding place," Akiiki said. "I mean, the greatest hiding place ever. You don't understand, normal rules and restrictions don't apply to royals! He can have a million people marching through every single city in Egypt, looking in every single nook and cranny for you. You could bury yourself a thousand feet underneath the sands, and he'd dig you up! He will find you."

Teana shook her head, sitting down on her cushioned chair in the center of the room. "No, he won't. In three months, should our dear Prince be insane enough to actually remember our encounter, he will issue a search order for Teana, daughter of a moderately successful real estate owner. And such a search won't find me."

"Well, it's easy to think that, but...wait, you told him your real name?" Akiiki shrieked. "You idiot!"

"Yes, because it doesn't matter. Even if he himself sees me, he won't know I'm the girl he met last night." Teana looked up at the ceiling. "Him having my name is not relevant. It won't help him."

Akiiki collapsed onto one of the stools around the cushioned chair. "You're not considering all the angles, Teana! He'll be looking for a girl with your name who looks just like you. You think that coincidence will be lost on him?"

"Whoa, the girl at that party last night looks nothing like me. That's a ridiculous statement. He won't look twice at me, I look nothing like her. She may as well be a different person." Teana shook her head. "Not even close."

"You're underestimating the Prince!" Akiiki retorted. "He's going to find you, identify you, and when he finds out that you lied about who you were...he might burn this entire section to the ground out of anger! I really think we should at least move out of the country."

"We are not moving," Teana said with finality in her voice. "He probably wouldn't even...look in the sections, I mean why would the girl he met last night be here?"

Akiiki shook his head and sank down into the stool. "If he doesn't find you, he's going to declare war on Israel. You do realize that, right?"

Teana shrugged. "Oh well." She cleared her throat. "Besides. It doesn't necessarily have to come to that."

She sat there, looking away from Akiiki, almost sensing his glare.

"I'm listening," Akiiki said slowly. Almost on cue, the tension was broken, as the front door slammed shut. Teana spun around in a whirl and looked up to see Kafele, standing just inside the threshold.

"You should close your door," he said casually. "So, when do we make a run for it?"

"We're not going anywhere." Akiiki didn't turn to acknowledge Kafele, eyes on Teana. "Now be quiet, Teana's about to wow us all with a master plan to turn this situation around."

"I don't know what he's talking about, he's gone nuts," Teana said dismissively. "However, I do have an idea. An absurd, far-fetched one. One that I have half a mind to just dump right now, and one that I have no expectation to be assisted in, even by my trusted assistants. But, if you want to hear it...I suppose you've earned that much over the years."

Kafele quickly moved to sit down on the stool next to Akiiki. "I would be ashamed of myself if I didn't assist in any endeavor you engaged in."

"Well, wait until you hear this," Teana said, standing up. "I've put a lot of thought into it, and whatever reservations I may have about Atem's behavior last night...on some level, he really, really liked me. And, while there are a thousand reasons why it could never happen, I should at least make...some sort of effort to make it happen. After all, the reward should I succeed is large beyond my wildest dreams."

"So, long story short, you're hot for the Prince and you want him to bang you into the next moon cycle, got it," Akiiki said. Teana glared at him, narrowing her eyes.

"It's a business decision!" she insisted, nevertheless letting her cheeks go red. "I'd be foolish to pass up an opportunity to marry into the royal family! That's all. I have an opportunity, and I've decided to at least make an effort to take it!"

"Right, right, sure. Go on." Akiiki smirked to himself.

"So. As it stands right now, we could never be together, I think that much is obvious. Not only does our social class prevent such a union, I brazenly lied to him about everything." Teana cleared her throat. "So, in order to circumvent these obstacles, I need a lot of gold."

"Brilliant plan," Kafele deadpanned. "Eliminate problems with gold. How does this help us?"

"The way I see it, I need to be able to pass myself off as the daughter of someone moderately wealthy. I had Sap go into town today and fetch some prices." She started pacing around the room. "I need a nice place in the good part of town, a proper wardrobe, appropriate accessories...a lot of stuff. And I need enough after that to either make meaty investments in merchant ships or real estate."

"You better be getting one hell of a discount rate on all that," Akiiki said. "I mean, what are you thinking? What do we need?"

"If Sap's numbers are correct, and my estimations are right...two hundred and fifty thousand." Teana nodded. "If we get there, I'll be close enough to the lies I told Atem, I can make some stuff up to get around the rest."

"Oh," Kafele said. "And here I thought it was going to be difficult."

"I have like four hundred saved up," Akiiki added. "So...two hundred fourty nine thousand six hundred to go."

"I get the sense you guys aren't taking me seriously," Teana said, walking towards her bedroom. "I expected nothing less."

"Well, excuse us!" Akiiki retorted. "I don't have two hundred and fifty thousand gold debens laying around! If I did, I wouldn't be here. Oh, come on." Teana disappeared into her bedroom. "Look, I'm sorry if we hurt your feelings, but it's a completely ridiculous plan! It's not even a plan, it's a..." he got up, shook his head, and walked into the room after her. Kafele followed.

"Men. Always thinking small," Teana said quietly, taking a seat on the edge of her bed.

"Alright, I'll play along," Kafele said. "If we work really hard, save all our gold, and can actually find profitable games...two hundred and fifty thousand...I guess it would take ten years. Five if you stop giving gold out to the kids whenever they hold their palms out."

"Well, that'll never happen, so ten. Great way to spend ten years," Akiiki said loudly. "In ten years Prince Atem will probably be dead. He'll get killed by an assassin from Israel after he declares war on them." At that moment, Akiiki noticed three small sacks next to Teana on the bed. "What are those?"

"They're bags," Teana said dryly. "What, your eyes don't work?"

Akiiki rolled his eyes, walked over to the bed, and grabbed one of the sacks. "You know, I _am_ trying to he-holy _Ra!_" He went bug-eyed as he looked down into the open sack. "Who did you kill?"

"What's up?" Kafele asked, stepping next to him and trying to peek down into the bag.

"Are these real?" Akiiki gasped, setting the sack down on the bed and feeling the other two with his hands. "They're real?"

"Every last one of them." Teana spread herself back out on the bed, closing her eyes and smiling.

Kafele picked up one of the bags, loosened the string keeping it closed, and then slowly dumped a stream of small diamonds out into his palm. The two young men looked the pile in Kafele's hand over, giving off strangled laughs.

"You boys done?" Teana asked.

"Where...how?" Akiiki demanded. "How?"

"Inspite of the best efforts of section six, the families I support have never been able to ask for gold faster than I made it. I've been playing cards for years, there's always been gold left over." Teana sighed. "When it got too much, I swapped it out for diamonds and hid it away. That's all of it."

"T-this is insane!" Kafele exclaimed. "This must be...at least ten thousand gold debens worth!" He carefully put the diamonds back in the sack, shut it, and gently put it back on the bed.

"Fifteen thousand." Teana sat back up, getting up on the edge of the bed. "Fifteen thousand gold debens."

"Teana...I...I don't-" Akiiki stuttered, but was cut off.

"I didn't want it to become public knowledge that I was keeping a large amount of diamonds in my hut, for obvious reasons," Teana said sternly. "It's nothing against you two. I didn't want anyone to know."

"No, I get that, but...what the hell are you doing _here?_" Akiiki asked. "You're sitting on fifteen thousand debens in diamonds and you're living in section six?"

"What would you guys do without me?" Teana said wryly. "Come on, if I left, all of you guys would be scooped within a year."

"You have fifteen thousand saved up and you're staying here to protect a bunch of losers like us?" Kafele asked. "Teana..."

"Yeah." Teana's smiled faded slightly. "I just wanted a big safety cushion to support you guys, but...you know, maybe it's time. Maybe it's like you guys say. I need to do something for myself. I need to...take a shot at something bigger and better. So, I'm gonna take a shot at this."

"Well, this certainly changes things," Kafele admitted. "I mean, fifteen thousand...getting to that point is the hard part, really! I mean, two fifty's the target, it'll be hard, we'll have to work, but I'd say...two years, we'll have it."

"I don't have two years," Teana said. "I don't need two years."

"Well, okay, what's life without a little risk...we'll have to find some bigger games, take some leaps of faith, but I'll say a year-"

"I don't have a year," Teana insisted. "You don't get it, Kafele. I'm done playing small games with amateurs. Those days are gone, it's time for real games. Serious games."

"If you're aiming for three moon cycles, that's just not gonna happen." Kafele shook his head. "Even if you could find the games, there's an absurd amount of risk involved. You'd have to play so aggressively in order to make that sort of gold, there's a better chance you lose everything. Besides, you'd never get a chance to play in those games."

"Three. I need one." Teana bit her lower lip. "One moon cycle, I'll have it."

"Teana, I love the boldness," Akiiki said. "You know me, I love bravery, but you're talking crazy right now. You can't get in those kinds of games. And even if you could, the risk...I mean, we'd be looking for a game with three hundred deben pre-card bets and raises of three thousand and six thousand. One string of bad cards and you lose everything."

Teana took in a deep breath. "Five hundred pre-card. No limit."

"Oh, Ra." Akiiki shook his head. "No limit is suicide, you know that. I can't believe you even said that."

"It doesn't matter anyway," Kafele pointed out. "She'll never get in a game like that."

"No. I can get in that game," Teana retorted, standing up and pointing at Akiiki and Kafele. "There's one game with those rules that I can get in. I'm sure of it. All I need is the one."

"You've gone mad," Akiiki muttered, looking up at the ceiling pleadingly. "Pray tell, which game?"

"There's a game that runs every three days not too far from here. They play five hundred pre-card bets, no limits on raising. I can get in, they meet tonight. The game mostly attracts wealthy people who get excited watching the cards come out. Sometimes it's hard for them to get enough people in the game. They'll bite."

"What game?" Akiiki repeated frantically.

Teana glanced around. "Aknekh's den."

"NO!" Kafele shouted, grabbing his hair. "How many millions of times have you told all of us, you know better than any of us, you never deal with Akhekh!"

She pointed at Kafele. "I said never borrow from Akhekh. I'm not borrowing from Akhekh, I'm taking from Akhekh. Big difference."

"Teana, I'm begging you, think about what you're saying," Akiiki pleaded. "You've spent a lifetime building yourself up piece by piece, and now you want to put everything in?"

"It's a calculated risk," Teana insisted. "I've been mastering this game over the past several years. I'm as good as anyone at it. I could beat most players without even looking at any of the cards at this point. I want to sit at the big table."

"Teana, this isn't about pride!" Kafele shouted. "This isn't about social status or being famous or sitting at the big table! You've always said it was about gold!"

"There's gold. Plenty of it," Teana responded. "Tonight, I walk in there with fifteen thousand gold debens. Akhekh might have to think about it, but I know that man. He cares for nothing but gold, everything else is secondary. Doesn't matter that I'm a woman, he's not going to pass up the chance to have fifteen thousand gold debens in his den. He'll let me in the game. I'll take him and whatever other rich suckers he's attracted. I come back in the morning, fifty-five or sixty thousand in my pocket. Then, we hit the casinos."

"Now I _know_ you're nuts." Akiiki walked up to Teana and grabbed the front of her robes. "Look, maybe that Akhekh stuff you said is at least feasible, but you will never, ever play in the casinos. No woman will play cards in a casino in our lifetime."

"Women never ask to play in a casino," Teana said, pushing Akiiki away from her and crossing her arms over her chest. "Women not being allowed to play cards is not a law. It's an unwritten, unspoken understanding that can easily be overturned in the right situation."

"Yes, easily overturned in small, private games. But in a casino, it will never happen. It's worthless to even try!" Kafele sat down heavily at the foot of the bed. "Come on, you can't honestly think-"

"Maybe they won't go for it the first time we try, or the second. It might not be an immediate thing, but casinos are all about profit. And while they might turn away they average woman player, who are extremely rare and typically low on gold since cards is considered an improper hobby for a wealthy woman to have, eventually they will buckle to me. They won't be able to pass on having a sixty thousand deben player playing in their house! No one can pass that up. Casinos are about gold too." Teana pounded her left fist into her right hand. "I will get into a casino, and I'll play the high-stakes games. Mostly rich amateurs and middling players, I can clean them out. A couple of visits later, I have my quarter million debens."

"This is nuts," Kafele uttered, putting his head in his hands. "You are talking about putting everything you have, and I mean everything, at risk in a high-stakes game of cards! One string of cold cards and you're done for! One bad beat, and you're cleaned out! And not just once, no, you're talking about multiple high-stakes games in a row. You get unlucky once, just once, and it's all over!"

"It's not luck." Teana pursed her lips. "Maybe the high-stakes games attract expert players here and there, but they're mostly average-at-best. I can always beat those guys. The cards don't matter. I can do this. I can get enough gold to tend to the situation with the Prince, and I'll be able to help everyone in section six once and for all. We can leave this place."

"Teana, I...I don't even know what to tell you." Akiiki puffed out his cheeks as he exhaled deeply. "You shouldn't be messing with Akhekh, under any circumstance. He's not just a loan shark, he's considered to be one of the premiere card players in all of Egypt. It's how he built up most of his fortune! This is a real risk!"

"I know he's good." Teana nodded. "He's really good. But I can take him. I know I can take him."

"We got a good thing going here, Teana," Kafele reminded her. "A real good thing. We'll never live in a palace, but we'll never go hungry. Think about what you're doing."

"I have thought about it, all of last night. It's a solid plan, and I can handle it. Now, I need to take a nap so I'm well-rested for tonight." Teana shooed them towards the door.

Kafele opened his mouth, then closed it, shook his head, and walked out of the room. Akiiki watched Kafele disappear, then turned towards Teana.

"Teana. I...well, anything I can do to help, I'm yours," Akiiki choked out, resignation in his voice.

"Thank you for your support. Your tone fills me with confidence," Teana deadpanned.

"No, I'm serious. Maybe it's...maybe it's not what I would do, but it's your life and I respect your decision. And I'm sorry about...flipping out on you just now, it's just shocking and...I do worry about you. I want to protect you."

Teana stepped forward and gave him a quick hug, then grabbed him and spun him around towards the door. "It's appreciated. But I'm a big girl."

"Yeah, you know, it's not our place, it's your gold." He slowly walked towards the door. "I mean, if I was in that...but no, it's your call. Good luck."

He departed the room, and Teana stared at the empty doorway for a few seconds, heaving a sigh.

.

_Akhekh got his start with the Werens, a criminal organization that terrorized Egypt for a few decades awhile back. They had their hand in everything. Robbery, murder, extortion, bribery...whatever else you care to name. Finally, Pharaoh Aknamkanon decided he had enough and focused his efforts on ending their reign. By the time he was done, there was nothing left of the Werens but the handful of high ranking members smart enough to surrender._

_Akhekh was one of them. He also had enough gold saved up to bribe everyone involved in the legal process, and ended up serving six moon cycles in prison before getting released. Now, he settles for doing work on the shady side of life, instead of the outright illegal. He hosts a high-stakes card game and dishes out gold loans to those in need with high interest rates._

_He's certainly not a good guy, but by all accounts, his illegal activities are a thing of the past. I don't need him to be a nice guy to take his gold. He's just a stepping stone on my way to the Prince and the palace._

Teana adjusted the bag hanging from her shoulder, then went down the steps towards the door that was sunk below ground level in the side of the building. Her sandals clopped along the stone steps, and then she knocked on the door.

She waited a few seconds, then a thin panel of wood at eye-level on the door slid open and a pair of eyes peeked out at her.

"Main entrance is on the other side," a man's voice said quickly, then the slat shut back up.

"I'm not going through the main entrance!" Teana called out. "I'm here to see Akhekh."

A long pause. Then the slat slid back open. "What's your business?"

"I'm here to play. At the big table," Teana said. "Open the door."

The man on the other side sighed. "I'm not opening the door. Scram."

"If you don't open the door, I'll go in through the main entrance, find the stairs, and come in that way. Either deal with me now or deal with me later." Teana leaned up against the wall next to the door, looking down at her fingernails.

The wooden slat slid back closed, then the door slowly creeked open. "Alright. Maybe you're new to this town, so I'll give you the benefit of the doubt once. But I'm only gonna say this once. In this city, women don't play cards. Akhekh doesn't want you in his card game, and in here, his word is law. Now beat it."

Teana simply stuck her foot past the threshold, folding her arms over her chest. "These are matters beyond the understanding of a doorman. I want to talk to your boss."

"I think you've forgotten your place," the man hissed. "You should leave before I get really mad."

"You're in charge of baby-sitting a door. I wouldn't talk about 'place'," Teana retorted.

"PRIDEFUL BITCH!" he roared, grabbing her by the collar and yanking her into the hallway. "You have NO idea the responsibility I have in this place. NO IDEA!"

"Hey."

Both the doorman and Teana turned their heads to look down the hall. Standing at the end of the stone path was a middle aged bald man in a blood red robe with a long, thick black beard.

"We can hear you in the card room. Keep it down. I have a bar upstairs, you know, you might scare the guests."

"S-sorry, sir," the doorman stuttered. "I'm just handling a situation."

"You can't even handle your emotions," Teana spat. "Now put me down."

Reluctantly, with a long pause, the man set Teana down, allowing her to stand inside the hall now.

"You're Akhekh, right?" Teana asked, looking the man over. He was tall and thin, a full head taller than her, his robe clinging tightly to his body. "Just the man I wanted to see."

"You can talk to my accountants upstairs about loans, now buzz off," Aknekh said, waving towards the door behind Teana.

"I don't want a loan," Teana said loudly, taking one step down the hall before being grabbed by the doorman. She roughly pushed him away, glaring at him before turning back to Akhekh. "I'm here to play cards. At the big table."

Aknekh furrowed his brow, then put his hands on his hips and looked up at the ceiling of the hall. "No women at the table," he said gruffly.

"Scared? I understand," Teana said as he tried to turn away and leave the hallway. He froze, then turned back to her, scowling.

"Minimum buy-in of ten thousand gold debens to play at my table," he grunted.

"That's fine," Teana said, smirking. "I got fifteen thousand reasons why I belong at your table." She took a few more steps towards him, then tossed the bag over her shoulder to him.

He caught it, then pulled the drawstring open and peeked inside. He reached inside and pulled out a smaller, brown sack, then pulled that one open. He looked over at her, a suspicious glare at her.

"Count it if you want to." She raised an eyebrow.

Aknekh closed the sack, dropped it back into the bag, then tossed it back to her. He bit his cheek, glancing at the hallway wall, eyes darting around. "You want to play cards?"

"That's what I said." Teana nodded, putting the sack back over her back. "But, if those are the rules..." she spun around and slowly ambled back towards the door.

"Wait," Anhekh grunted, holding his hand out towards her. "Come on." He jerked his head towards the doorway in the side of the hallway next to him.

"You're joking," the doorman said, shoulders drooping. "Come on, boss, don't tell me-"

"Hey, you!" Akhekh pointed at the doorman. "You worry about watching the door...whatever your name is."

Teana turned around and shot a nasty smile at the doorman, then turned and followed Akhekh into the next room.

"Five hundred pre-card bets. No limit," Akhekh said in his deep, gutteral voice. "Double spot rotates around. And in my building, we play with chips."

The two entered a dark, seedy-looking room with a single stone table and four men sitting around it. Each man had a pile of wooden pieces in front of them. A few barrels were across the room against the far wall, and there was a counter on the right side. Behind the counter was a man, standing there and watching the table with unblinking eyes.

"Go," Akhekh instructed, pointing at the counter. "Get chips."

Teana sauntered over to the counter, slamming her bag onto the counter top and looking up at the man. "Fifteen thousand."

The man eyed the bag for a section, then bent down to grab something. He came up with a large box filled to the brim with an assorted collection of perfectly cut wooden circles with numbers written on them.

"Fifteen thousand coming up."


	6. Take Your Shot

Chapter Six: Take Your Shot

.

Teana sat down at an empty seat on the table, putting a pile of wooden chips on the table and starting to stack them.

"Are you serious?" One of the men pointed at Teana. "Is this a joke? Come on man."

"My club, my decision," Akhekh said gruffly. "You don't like it, you can get out."

The man glared at Teana for a moment, but then turned his attention back towards the dealer opposite him on the table.

_No limit is the crown jewel of cards. People who play no limit are either so rich they don't care about losing thousands of debens, or are certified experts. Some experts won't even play it because they can't handle the swings. Others tell you that no limit is the only real way to play. To put it simply, in no limit, you're always only one hand from taking control of the game._

_In other games, you can only have two raises per wager round, and there are only two levels of wager you can make. In no limit, you can raise as many times as you want per round, and wagers can be as little or as big as you want. If you want to, you can raise every single deben you have in front of you. Fortunes can be won or lost in a single hand._

"Alright, pre-bets," Akhekh demanded as the dealer shuffled. Everyone threw their chips in as the dealer dealt out cards.

Teana took in a deep breath, then peeked at what she was holding. Pyramid Queen and Ankh Peasant.

"I'll pass," Teana said quietly.

.

Teana pursed her lips, staring at the center of the table. "Alright, I'm gonna have to wager here. Three grand."

She grabbed three stacks of chips and slid them into the center, then turning to glare at Akhekh. He considered the four cards out on the table, then looked down at his chip stack.

He looked over to the side, Teana not dropping her gaze. Finally, he waved his hand towards her. "I'm out."

She immediately lunged forward and grabbed the chips in the pot, pulling them in front of her.

"Okay, w-what the hell is going on here?" one of the other players asked, pointing at Teana. "What is this?"

"What's the problem?" Akhekh asked in a deadpanned, stroking his beard as Teana finished stacking her chips.

"She's up seven grand!" he exclaimed. "Come on Akhekh, who is this girl? What's your relationship with her?"

"I don't know her," Akhekh said slowly. "She is a card player, and that is all."

"Seven and a half grand," Teana corrected, steepling her hands in front of her.

_I didn't have a thing just now. Nothing. I just took Akhekh out holding rags. If there was any further proof needed that I belong at this table, that was it. I'm up from fifteen to twenty-two and a half, and hold the second biggest stack at the table behind Akhekh's thirty. And the night's still young._

"This ain't right," the man mumbled. The man to Teana's left passed her the deck of cards. She took it as everyone else put in pre-bets. She made a pre-bet of her own, shuffled, then dished out cards to everyone in turn.

The table passed the action around the table until it got to Teana. Finally, she peaked at her cards. Was God, Was Vizier.

"I'm gonna go in five hundred," Teana said, grabbing one of her stacks and placing half of it in the center.

"Okay. I'll match that," the man to her right decided, making his own chip contribution.

The table went around, three dropping out, leaving three in the hand, including Akhekh. Teana burned one card to the side, then set out the top three from the deck.

Djed God, Pyramid General, Djed Vizier. Only years of practice allowed Teana to conceal her emotions and present nothing to the rest of the players but a stony look. Things checked around to her.

_This is the kind of hand you can spend all day searching for. Two groups of two, Gods and Viziers. Akhekh and this other guy apparently liked their initial two cards enough to hang around, so now I have to pick a guy to go after._

_This guy, I don't even know his name, I could set a trap for him. Bet another five hundred, force him to stick around, get him slightly more committed to the hand so when I raise even more later he's compelled to stay._

_But I want to go after Akhekh. And he's too smart for a trap. If I bet five hundred here, he'll bail out before committing to the hand. No, Akhekh is better than that. I have to bet big here. Make him think I've got nothing and I'm trying to bully people out._ _I'll mirror my move from the last hand, make him think I'm just being a bully on every hand._

"Three grand," Teana said, pushing three full stacks to the middle. "That's the wager."

"Forget it," the other man said, throwing his cards over to Teana. "I'm out."

Akhekh peered hard at Teana, then down at the cards on the table. He put his elbow on the table, then propped his chin on it and looked to the side.

"Match," Akhekh finally said shortly, pushing three piles of chips to the middle to go with Teana's.

_Akhekh's a smart player. He'd never match that bet unless he was holding something good. If I had to take a guess, I'd say he's holding two Djeds, which gives him a fifty percent chance of making a type-match that would beat my two groups of two. _

Teana burned a card, then set out the fourth in the center of the table. Was Vizier. Akhekh chewed on his thumb for a few seconds, sizing the hand up. "Pass."

_The deck likes me this hand. That was the money card. A couple years ago, my mouth would have twitched or my eyes would have flashed and Akhekh would have jumped out of the hand in a second. But I think I got him. I've got a trio with a pair, three viziers and two gods, which would beat his type-match. But I want him to stick around, so..._

"I'll pass too," Teana said quickly, setting a card face down to the side, then placing a fifth down. Djed Peasant.

_It's almost like I'm playing with Ramses and he's yanking the deck. Akhekh has his type-set now, so he's going to fall right into a trap that I don't even have to set._

Akhekh coughed into his fist a couple times, then sighed. "Okay. I wager." He looked down at his sizable stack of chips, putting his fingers on them. "Ten grand."

Teana gave a small look of shock, then held her palm out towards Akhekh as he pushed his chips to the middle. "Alright. Alright, timeout. One second here." She bit her tongue, propping her head up on her fist, looking at the table.

_I want him to think this is a tough decision for me. Maybe get him to think I'm holding a trio, or two pairs of two, something that his type-match will beat. But in reality, I'm about to push my stack up to close to fifty thousand._

"Alright, alright. Well." Teana glanced down, looking her chips over. "Well. Looks like I have...nineteen thousand here. Yup, nineteen thousand. Alright, I'm gonna go all-in here." She roughly pushed all of her chips to the middle. "So, that's a match and a re-raise of nine thousand. Yup, I'm going all-in. I don't think you're holding what it takes."

"Nine thousand." Akhekh repeated, looking hard at the massive pot of chips. "Nine thousand. Well. Let me guess. Viziers full of Gods?"

Teana's face faltered, flickering, chin dropping slightly as her mouth opened slightly.

"Very nice. But..." he started pushing chips in, grabbing his thousand-deben chips and throwing them into the middle. Teana felt her stomach start to twist up in a knot.

_In that moment, before he shows what he's holding, I know. I know what he has. And I know I'm toast._

"Trust me, girl, it's better this way," Akhekh said, grabbing his two cards after his chips were in the center and flipping them over. Pyramid God. Ankh God. "Gods full of Viziers."

Teana felt like a bucket of ice cold water had been poured down her throat. Her mouth fell open as Akhekh started pulling the chips towards his pile. She propped her hands up on the edge of the table, staring down in disbelief at the pile of nothing in front of her.

"Pass the deck on. Get out of here," Akhekh instructed. Teana did nothing, just sitting there, as if she was expecting chips to will themselves out of nowhere in front of her. Her eyes were wide and her mouth was still partially open in complete shock.

"I said, beat it." Akhekh pointed to the door behind him. Numbly, Teana got to her feet and shuffled towards the door stiffly. "Hey, don't look so down," he said, as the other men around the table started to laugh. "Here. Go upstairs and have a drink on me." He reached into his pocket, pulled out a small handful of tiny deben coins, and flung them at her. They hit her chest and fell to the floor.

She looked down at them for a second, then bent down to pick them up, ignoring the men laughing even harder.

.

The sun was just peering up over the horizon. Teana almost reached up to knock on her front door before remembering that it was her hut, and simply pushed the door open.

"The Future Princess of Egypt, return to her humble abode!"

Ramses was sitting on the central chair in the main room, reclined on the cushioned chair. Akiiki and Kafele were standing in the far corner, eyes on her walking in with slumped shoulders and her head down.

"These guys told me all about your master plan, and I have to say, it is inspired!" Ramses jumped up, ran ahead, and slapped her on the shoulder. "Taking on Akhekh himself, inspired! No other words for such a complicated and bold vision! I just couldn't let you return without a welcoming party after going and doing something like that. How about I buy you dinner in the nice part of town today or tomorrow to celebrate your...shall we say, inaugural visit to the big table?"

Teana mutely shuffled past him, walking into the kitchen. Akiiki and Kafele exchanged worried glances. Ramses, however, remained oblivious.

"Tired? Yeah, a full night of cards can do that to you. At least say something though, come on!" Ramses followed her into the food area, hands out in front of him. He came in in time to see Teana kick her sandals off in the corner of the room.

"Well?" He asked.

"I...I uh, I lost." Teana turned around to face him, then went over to the countertop to the left to grab a slice of bread. "I lost."

"Oh. Well, it happens, but you can still get into some fantastic action with five thousand!" Ramses smacked her on the back again. Teana didn't even smack him back. "Rough luck, shake it off, we'll be back on it tomorrow!"

"No, no, Ramses," she said hoarsely. "I lost all of it. Fifteen thousand, not ten. It's...I lost all of it."

Ramses froze in mid-sentence, blinking. "Well. That's, uh...y'know, it's a setback." He chuckled dryly. "Uh, shoot, I...well, that's a...problem. But, you know what, I think...well, let's-"

Teana brushed past him and walked back through the main room, not stopping on her way to her sleeping quarters, closing the door behind her.

"Did she just said she lost everything?" Kafele whispered.

"Yes, she did." Akiiki said hoarsely. "Yes, she did. We are so screwed."

"Oh, Ra," Kafele moaned. "We are neck deep in manure. Holy Ra."

Both made a move for the bedroom door, but Ramses sprung out of the food area and jumped in front of them, hands out.

"No! No, the last thing she needs right now is you two and your negativity." Ramses waved them off. "I got this."

"Negativity is appropriate right now, you stupid ass!" Kafele hissed through gritted teeth. "Did you not hear her? She just lost fifteen thousand gold debens! This is bad! Real bad!"

"Everything is fine! Both of you need to keep your opinions to yourself right now, she doesn't need them. What she needs is someone to pick her back up. Like me. So both of you, keep your mouths shut, and let me deal with this. She's in a bad state right now, and what we do now will have a drastic impact on how she is after this is over."

He cleared his throat, spun around, and marched into the bedroom. Teana was seated on the edge of the bed, head bowed, hands in her lap. As soon as the door opened, she raised her hands up to wipe off her face, then looked up at Ramses walking in.

"Hey, uh, bad beat. Sorry, bad luck, what else can I say?" Ramses sat down next to her, putting his hand on her shoulder. "They happen to the best of us, but they come and go real quick. I'll loan you five hundred, find a good game for you tomorrow, and you'll be right back up to...two thousand, and then things start chaining, and before you know it-"

"No thank you," she said quietly, still looking down at her feet. "I'll pass."

"No, Teana I...you know what, what am I saying, forget the loan. I'll _give_ you five hundred. You can reload and restart. That's how you do it!" Ramses patted her on the back.

"It's okay. I don't want to waste someone else's gold," Teana replied.

Ramses sighed. "Teana. I understand that a bad beat can rattle someone's confidence. But don't talk like that. You're one of the best card players in Egypt. You'll turn my five hundred into five thousand in no time, like you always have!"

"I don't need your five hundred," Teana said, a little louder this time. She stood up. "I'd just throw it away. It's fine."

"O-oh, of course. You have a plan. I mean, of course you have a plan. Alright, what's up?" Ramses crossed one leg over the other as Teana turned to face her bed, then went down on her knees and pulled at a small rip in the cushion. She reached her hand into the hole, and pulled it out, clutching a decent sized sack.

"Oh, but of course!" Ramses jumped up. "Of course you'd have a safety net, just in case. Because that's just how smart you are!" He lunged forward and snatched the sack from her hand, holding it up. "That feels like...five hundred, excellent! Always planning ahead."

"Things are gonna change," Teana said, an emotionless deadpan. "I wandered around town most of the night, thinking, but I know what I'm gonna do now." She waved her hands at the three young men in her room. "Don't worry, you guys aren't involved, I'm not gonna get you guys in trouble. This one's me. I've already done a lot of damage to you two-" she pointed at Akiiki and Kafele, "-so I just need to cut my losses now."

"So what's the plan?" Ramses asked energetically.

"I'm done. It's done. Cards, I'm retired. No more, I'm done playing cards." Teana waved her hands around. "Cards, I'm retiring. That's my plan. It's real simple. No more cards."

"W-what, Teana. You need a nap," Ramses said, patting the bed. "You need to get some sleep, you're talking crazy. Five hundred is more than enough to get you started, and...hell, you know what? My offer stands. I'll give you five hundred debens. You can have a thousand. A few moon cycles, it'll be like this never happened."

"Ramses, no, I don't want your gold. I don't need it. I already know what's gonna happen." Teana nodded her head. "I know what I'm going to do. And it doesn't involve you guys."

"Teana. I swear to Ra I'm not just saying this, you are the best card player I know. And I know card players." Ramses patted the back of her neck.

Teana shoved his arm away, taking her gold back in the process. "Oh yeah? Well, I lost twenty two and a half thousand debens yesterday. In one hand. Twenty two and a half grand, everything I had, gone in a single hand. So if I'm the best card player you know, then you don't know card players, because after what happened last night, I can not call myself good. Good players don't let that happen. Ever. So, these last few years, who knows what can account for all that, but I'm not a good card player."

"Oh...Teana-"

"So, I'm done. I'm moving on from cards. This five hundred is all I have left, and it's going to protect me going forward." She sighed. "I'm gonna find another way to make it work. I'm gonna...start fishing or sewing or maybe get hired as help in a restaurant."

"A working stiff? That's your big plan?" Ramses said, nostrils flaring. "C'mon, Teana, that's a waste of your talents. Besides, that stuff is a death trap, you know that. Those stories always end the same way."

"That's right." Teana set the sack down on the bed. "Fortunately, it's not going to come to that. I'll make as much gold as I can doing whatever task I can find. Whatever it is, I'll do it. I get the same shake of life that every other person in the ten sections gets."

"Teana, you pay taxes, rent, food...no, you know better than me that you never make enough doing crap like that to make ends meet! Maybe for awhile, but you see it all around you. Everybody falls into the red, and everybody gets scooped. You know that!" Ramses scowled.

"I have five hundred debens as a safety net. Whatever I'm short on, it comes out of the five hundred." Teana patted the sack next to her.

Ramses scoffed. "That'll last...three moon cycles. Sustainable model you got there. Great plan."

"Three moon cycles sounds about right." Teana nodded. "So, the way I see things, I have three moon cycles to get married."

The room fell completely silent, all three men staring at Teana. She glumly looked down at the floor.

"I'll start spending nights at the bar, public places...girl like me should have no problem meeting men. I'll go through some options and make a choice before I run out of gold. With any luck...he'll be in the army. I can get out of the sections, live a moderate life without fear of getting scooped or going hungry. Egypt takes care of it's armed forces. If not, you know, whatever I can find. Fisherman, blacksmith, farmer. Hell, maybe I'll really get lucky and end up with a merchant. But if not, well, the additional income gives me a fighting chance."

"That's your master plan?' Ramses asked rhetorically. "Bend over and take it from our male-dominated society?"

"Yup." Teana nodded wistfully. "Whatever I can learn over the next couple moon cycles, I'll learn, scrape together a living as long as I can, then...tie the knot with the best I can find."

Ramses pulled himself closer to Teana. "Teana, you don't get it."

"No, Ramses, you don't get it!" Teana spat, standing up. "I lost twenty two and a half thousand debens in a single hand today! People don't do that, Ramses! They don't do that unless they don't belong! I don't belong, it's that simple! This is the only thing I can do. There's no choice to make." She turned to Kafele and Akiiki. "Guys, I'm really sorry. Our partnership is over, and before you say anything, I accept that it's one hundred percent my fault. It's all on me. Every bit of it. You guys, go on, do your own thing and live your life. You guys will be fine, I'm sure of it."

Both just stood there, afraid to open their mouths. Ramses did not hold any such reservation.

"Here's another one hundred percent for you, Teana," he hissed. "One hundred percent chance the guy you marry, be he a merchant or a soldier or a farmer or whatever, I'll tell you one thing, he's gonna be a douche." He nodded. "A douche. As far as he's concerned, he's doing you a service by marrying you, and he will never let you forget that! He's going to view you as a servant! A means to accomplish his goals in life! Someone to clean the house, cook him food, raise his kids...you don't want that! You have never wanted that!"

"It's not about what I want, Ramses," Teana replied coldly. "It's about what I can do. And this is the only thing I can do."

"So that's it then?" Ramses asked rhetorically. "You're gonna resign yourself to a life of cooking and cleaning and raising kids and following orders from a guy? Teana, you put one toe out of line for the rest of your life, this guy cuts it off! Put another toe out, he kicks you out on the street!"

"Sucks to be me," Teana said dryly. "You know, Ramses, I know it's bad. It's real bad, I don't need you reminding me of it."

"And what about your extended family?" Ramses asked, voice biting, pointing out the door. "Section six? What about them, huh?"

Teana hesitated for a moment, mouth twitching. "I've done everything I can for them. I don't feel great about it, but...they'll get the same chance as everyone else in the sections from here on out."

"Well, that's just awesome!" Ramses walked towards the door, hands up in the air. "All these people, nearly a hundred Egyptian peasants, you're walking out on them! That's your big plan! Lemme tell you, this one really needs some work. It's got nothing on your last one, that's for sure!"

"Ramses, shut up," Akiiki grumbled meekly.

"If you're so worried about them, then maybe you can help them!" Teana spat.

"I got plans for my gold, plans that have nothing to do with this place," Ramses sneered, grabbing the door on his way out. "You have a choice. Whether you realize it or not. You know damn well you're a day of cards away from being back up to four or five thousand, and for some reason, you're ignoring that! You're the most gifted card player in the city, and you're throwing that away!"

"That's not an option!" Teana roared. "I took my shot, and I failed! I got one shot, I took it, and it didn't work out, so it's done! I can't afford to lose anymore! And you can't lose what you don't put in the middle! So I'm done putting things in the middle! Maybe this plan isn't going to put me in a great position, but it'll keep me alive!"

"You lost to a professional! Your first loss in years, and suddenly the sky is falling! There's a million debens floating around in the city just waiting to be snatched by any competent card player, and you're choosing voluntary slavery for some random guy. Why is that? Answer me that."

Teana bit her lower lip and her face went red with anger. She just barely managed to choke out her words. "Because...it's a man's game."

Again, dead silence in the room.

"Yeah, I said it. It's a man's game. I don't like it, but me liking it has nothing to do with it. It's the truth. Yesterday proved it. Maybe I can fake it a little bit, put together some runs, but ultimately...I don't belong at the table. It's a man's game." She sighed. "I need to go play the woman's game now. And...well, society tells me that's cooking food and cleaning the house and raising kids. So be it."

Ramses shook his head in disgust. "Unbelievable." He slammed the door shut behind him.

Teana fell back onto the bed, exhaling.

"Hey, Teana, I'm sorry about him, he's...well, you know, he's a nut." Akiiki walked up over to Teana, sitting down by her side. "Hey, I'm real sorry about yesterday night. It's...it happens, bad beats happen."

"I had top two sets after the first three," Teana said, voice oddly detached. "Fourth street got me Noblemen full of Gods. I had to play it."

"You gotta make a big play on a hand like that," Kafele agreed, slowly walking over to the two and sitting next on the other side of Teana. "I'm real sorry too."

"I thought he was hunting for a type-match and nailed it on fifth street. I thought I had him." Teana sniffled a little. "Then he turned over those damned Gods and...just like that, it was all gone."

"Hey, we're gonna be okay. You do whatever you have to do to stay alive, Teana. Don't worry about us, we'll be okay, you handle your business. This decision you've made, whatever you have to do to make it work, we're behind you. If you need anything, anything at all, you come to us." Kafele patted her head. "It's a rough beat, nothing else you can say."

"Anything you need, come to us. Seriously, don't even hesitate, we're here for you." Akiiki patted her thigh.

.

With a heavy heart, Teana entered the basement of section six, opening the door to reveal the face of a bunch of kids between the ages of five and nineteen. Her extended family, the people she cared about and cared for. She forced a bad smile as she walked in, then held her hands up.

"Hey, everyone! Everyone, uh, listen up." She took in a deep breath. "It's done. I'm sorry, everyone, I'm being completely serious here, spread the word to everyone in section six. I never wanted this to happen, but it's over. I can't support you guys any more, I can't give you guys any more debens, that time is over."

Instantly, the room felt completely silent, the two dozen children hanging onto her every word.

"Something's happened, and...everything changes now. I have to move on, we all have to move on. You guys, you're all on your own now. Go out into the world, work hard, and try to keep your head above water. Stay in the black. That's all I can say. But, it can't be me anymore. You can't depend on me anymore. That time is over. I'm sorry, I never wanted this, but that's the situation we're in. Just, whatever you do, try not to get scooped."

Everyone started looking at one another, as if to confirm that they were hearing properly.

"This isn't a joke, this isn't a test, this is real. I made a mistake, and we're all in a bad spot. Including me. Whatever you have to do to stay alive, do it, but it can't involve me."

"It's okay, Teana," one of the kids said, stepping forward. Ana. "We still love you."

"Thanks." Teana said, nodding and smiling appreciatively.

"Yeah, thanks for all the help over the years. You've been unthinkably big for us," Pashet agreed. "You just worry about yourself from now on."

Everyone in the room slowly closed in on her, all of them uttering the same, tired old phrases of love and concern and caring.

"Don't even worry about us," Patesi said, patting her on the back. "Worry about yourself."

"I will." Teana nodded. "I will."

.

"So that's that," Teana said, leaning against the far wall of the main room, Sitto seated on her chair in the center, eyes on her. "Ra, it sounds stupider every time I say it. I've spent most of my life making fun of people who lose all their gold in one hand. I've made thousands of debens off of them. And now I'm one of them. Anyway, I'm real sorry, Sitto."

"Don't apologize to me," Sitto replied, nevertheless looking quite unsettled at Teana's story. "It seems to me there are about a hundred other people who deserve an apology first."

"Yeah, well, I've already talked to them." Teana sighed, putting her back up close to the wall, looking up at the ceiling. "I know what you wanted from me, Sitto. And I'll never be able to give you that."

Sitto gave a small smile. "Give me? What did I want from you? What are you talking about?"

Teana bit her cheek. "Come on. You wanted me to be the...beacon of hope for women in this men-first society. You wanted me to be the one woman who showed men once and for all that women can handle business in the world as well. You wanted me to show them up. And now I'm just gonna fall in line with the rest of them and get on my knees for whatever man is gracious enough to save me from the single life. And I know that disappoints you."

"Oh. Teana, I never had an agenda with you." Sitto shook her head. "You make it sound like I'm some...evil genius using you for my own ends. It was never like that. I saw great potential in you to be a great woman one day, perhaps, but sometimes the pieces don't fall into place. But that's fine, you are still a wonderful young woman! What you did, you did in the name of trying to be great. You fell short, but at least you tried."

"Yeah well, maybe I took the wrong shot. I don't know," Teana said, shrugging.

"What bothers me, is that you said you did all this to...what was it, impress a boy?" Sitto squinted at Teana. "They're not worth it. Come on, if any boy isn't impressed by what they see in front of them when they lay eyes on you, they're not worth chasing, period."

"Eh, no, this one...this one would have been worth it." Teana came off from the wall, smirking to herself. "Just trust me, it would have been worth it."

"Who was this boy, anyway? Do I know him?" Sitto asked, putting her hands on her thighs.

"Well...you probably know...of him," Teana replied slowly.

"Who was he?" Sitto scratched the top of her head.

"I don't even want to talk about it, Sitto," Teana said, sitting down on a stool. "It's embarrassing. Even more now that it's not going to happen, it's embarrassing that I even thought about it."

"Alright," Sitto said, shrugging. "I'm not going to make fun of you, not after the night you just had."

"I don't even want to talk about it," Teana muttered. "If I tell you, you'll think I belong in a nuthouse." She tapped her foot on the floor. "Well, gonna be interesting. Teana the housewife. Cleaner of floors, cooker of food, raiser of children. Sounds odd, doesn't it? It took me all night of walking around before I even started to get used to the idea. That's me, for the rest of my life."

"Maybe," Sitto said wryly, shrugging. "Maybe. Or maybe, something comes up."

"No. No, I think this is pretty well set in stone. I don't have another option here, this is all there is." Teana closed her eyes and inhaled. "There's nothing else."

"You'd think that. And yet, things happen." Sitto cleared her throat. "You wanna know something interesting? When I was a young girl, you know what I was gonna be?"

"Somehow, I think that conversation's never come up," Teana admitted. "What? Queen of the World?"

"I was going to be a Priestess. Woman of the cloth, as they say. Live in the temple, work my way up the ranks...those around me thought I'd make High Priestess one day. You see, my father was a priest. My mother was a priestess. Their parents were priests and priestesses, the family line went quite a distance back. So, it was like I had no other option. And, let me tell you, I made my family very proud when I was young. I was a twelve-year-old girl, the pride of the temple. They said my knowledge of religious scriptures was on the level of a forty-year-old. I was already being groomed to stand at the side of the Pharaoh and advise him in all matters."

"That's quite a thing," Teana said, smirking slightly. "So, what happened?"

Sitto hesitated. "Well, those first twelve years of life, I really thought there wasn't anything else but being a priestess. I couldn't imagine an alternative. But when I was thirteen, I realized something. I could never be a priestess."

"Too boring?" Teana asked, crossing her arms over her chest. "I don't blame you, sounds like it'd be a snoozefest."

"No, no, not that." Sitto pursed her lips. "I knew every word of the scriptures, I knew all the rituals and tributes...but I could never find the Gods in them. I realized, when I was thirteen, that all that writing and all those fancy tricks they had you pull...that's all it was to me. I saw no greater power in them. To me it was all just a show. Tried to fake it but...you can't fake something like that, it's not possible."

"Well there you go," Teana said.

"So, I...I told my parents. They were crushed. They sent me away to live in a foster home and I...I never spoke to them again."

"You married a war hero and wrote scrolls that are distributed across the country, that's more than respectable life!" Teana insisted, pointing at Sitto.

"Yes, I hoped that...my accomplishments would convince them that I did the right thing but...they were never willing to hear it. To them, I was a priestess, or I was nothing. I could have become Queen of Egypt and I still would have been nothing to them." Sitto looked down at the floor. "They've been dead for over a decade now, I never got the chance to talk to them again."

"If you could do it all over again, would you make the same choice?" Teana asked, leaning back up against the wall.

Sitto smirked. "I didn't make a choice. No choice. I could never have been a priestess no matter what. It wasn't an option. What I did was the only choice I had. Ultimately, you are who you are, Teana. And you can't fake who you are, not for long."

"That's...that's interesting," Teana said, nodding.

"So, my point is, maybe your destiny is to be a housewife to some random guy in some random small house somewhere. And if it is, well, there's honor in raising children, that much I'll admit. But if your destiny is something greater than that. If you're meant to be a high-rolling card player who destroys the gender norms of our society. Then that's what you'll be. And this, this housewife stuff you're thinking about now, it's not gonna be anything. There will come a time when your destiny will catch up with you. And when it does, you won't have to make a choice. There won't be a choice." Sitto nodded.

"Well, that's a nice thought," Teana said, smiling. "Thank you for understanding. I have to go get a fishing pole." She stood back up straight and headed towards the door.


	7. Bad Company

Chapter Seven: Bad Company

.

Teana limped into the basement, enjoying the cool feeling of underground air crashing into her. She groaned, ambling towards a flat cushion set up across the room, making her way through a thicket of children sitting around on the floor and talking.

"Teana!" One of the girls got up from around a small table and ran towards her, grabbing her legs and hugging her.

"Hey Amaunet," Teana replied, patting her on the back of the head. "Good day?"

"Mmm-hmm," she replied.

"Hey, Amaunet, you don't leave the table in the middle of a hand," one of the boys at the small table said, waving her back over. "It holds up the game and looks suspicious."

Amaunet stuck her tongue out at the table, but nevertheless ran back, taking a kneeling position at the table.

"Alright, what do we have here?" Teana asked, walking up to the table and looking down. The kids, all nine years old or younger, all had piles of parchment scraps in front of them, and one of the kids was holding a deck of cards. "A game? Alright, high rollers! What are the stakes?"

"First person to lose has to do chores for whoever wins. Second person to lose has to do half the chores of whoever comes in second," one of the boys said. The dealer started to deal the first three community cards out to the center of the table.

"You have to burn the top one!" Teana said, patting Amaunet on the top of the head, then turning and flopping down heavily onto the cushion behind her. "Not literally, just put it to the side!"

"You sure it's a good idea to be so close to a card game right now?"

Teana looked up and saw Akiiki approaching her, a smile on his face and hands out.

"I don't know. They're throwing around some serious wagers right now, I don't think I have what it takes to sit at this table." Teana grinned. "How's it going?"

"Good day," Akiiki said, coming around the cushion and sitting down next to her feet. "Y'know, now that I'm actually just playing for myself, I really realize...so many of the players are just trash. I can get whatever I want against these guys and I'm not even that good."

"You're good, Akiiki. Very good," Teana insisted, laying back on the cushion.

_It's been half a moon cycle since the twenty two and a half thousand deben disaster. Fifteen days. I have a new appreciation for the peasants of Egypt now. How they do it, I have no idea. _

"I have to walk half an iteru just to get to a decent fishing spot," Teana moaned, kicking her sandals off onto the floor. "And then another quarter iteru to get to the buyer, and then the whole thing back. That's an iteru and a half, every single day. I talk to people who have to do two. It's nuts."

"Then don't fish. Try something else." Akiiki laid back on the makeshift seat.

"I feel committed to it now that I have the equipment." Teana shrugged. "My feet are killing me."

Akiiki rolled his eyes. "Subtle." Nevertheless, he grabbed her right foot and pulled it down into his lap and started to massage it.

Teana smiled, then looked over at the table. "Amaunet bets ten," Teana called out, pointing at the table with her right hand. Amaunet spun around, looking at Teana with a raised eyebrow, but Teana just nodded. "She bets ten."

Akiiki gave an excited grin, glancing at Teana, then back to the table as Amaunet placed the bet in the center. "Did you catch anything at least?"

"Yeah, of course. You know, nothing special, but...it's got to be the most boring thing in the world. I sat there for half the day, and ninety-five percent of the time that's all it is. You sit there and watch your stupid rod, waiting for it to jiggle." Teana shook her head, sinking back into the cushion. "And then the walking. I used to make ten times as much working a tenth as hard."

"Well, hey, you could always come on back to the dark side," Akiiki suggested, grabbing her other foot and squeezing it.

"I can't," Teana said sadly. "As terrible as fishing is, at least it's safe. One more bad beat at cards and I'd be dead."

Akiiki shook his head. "You know, you always have backup from me and Kafele and Ramses if something bad happened."

"I'm not throwing away my gold and then asking you guys for more," Teana said quickly. "That's...I'm not gonna do that."

"Yeah." Akiiki squeezed her toes. "Say, uh, you wanna do dinner tomorrow? We could go to the nice part of town."

"Sure, that sounds...wait," Teana paused, holding her hand up in the air. "Wait, did you just ask me out?"

Akiiki went slightly red and bowed his head down. "Well, we eat dinner all the time."

"Yeah, but, are you asking me out?" Teana repeated, blinking awkwardly.

"Look," Akiiki said, turning his head to look at her. "I was thinking about your situation. Why not? I mean, we've known each other for a long time, we're good friends, and I know this is getting way ahead of ourselves, but...you know I'd never treat you like dirt if we got married. So why not give it a shot?"

Teana started laughing, leaning her head back. "Akiiki, that would be way too weird. Come on, I've known you as a friend for how long, and now you're gonna try to...court me? Come on, no way."

"Well, why not? Are you having any luck out at the bars?" Akiiki shrugged. "I find it hard to believe that you're going to find anyone...well, more qualified than me."

"More qualified?" Teana raised an eyebrow. "Yeah, I guess you might be the best I can do."

"I'm a fair card player, fair enough to support us financially, and you know I'm a good guy," Akiiki continued, still going red. "So why not?"

"Okay, okay, enough with the sales pitch," Teana said, waving at him and grinning. "I'll think about it, okay? Think about it." She leaned back, smirking. "It'd be really weird though. Where are the other guys?"

"They're working in town," Akiiki replied. "Ramses has been doing nothing but working lately. Constantly. I think he's trying to get together a boatload of gold. He's got plans."

"He doesn't talk to me anymore," Teana said sadly. "Not since...well, you know."

"He'll come around," Akiiki comforted.

"The really unbelievable thing to me, is that nobody here has gotten...angry at me except him," Teana mentioned. "All these people, I've really sort of screwed them over with this. They'll all probably doomed because of this, it's my fault, and they're not mad. They all talk about how much they love me and how they respect my decision."

"After everything you've done for all of us over the last years, Teana, nobody has the right to be mad at you." Akiiki patted the top of her foot.

"Amaunet bets twenty," Teana called out loudly. Again, Amaunet spun around to look at the older girl, wide eyed as she considered her stack of parchment shreds.

"Don't listen to her, she walked in in the middle of the hand," one of the boys said. "Come on, she'll cost you all your shreds."

"Hey, if she wants to do something stupid, let her," another boy said. "She'll be the one stuck with extra chores."

"Nothing stupid about it," Teana said, propping her head up on her hand and smirking. "She raises twenty. We know what she has, and we know what you guys have, and it's that simple."

"Oh, yeah, Teana, sure, you know what we have," the dealer said dryly. "Get out of here. You weren't even here for the first round of betting."

Teana pointed at the boy to the left of Amaunet. "Well, let's see. You're on a busted draw for a run-of-five, hoping a farmer would show up on fourth street." She pointed to the next boy going around. "You have a low pocket pair that you know isn't good anymore unless you pull a trio on fifth street." She went to the dealer. "You've got two sets of two, but they're not gonna help you." Finally, she came to the last boy, to the right of Amaunet. "And you're hunting for a type-match on fifth street that suddenly looks a lot less likely."

"Okay, that's just not fair," one of the boys moaned, throwing his cards back to the dealer. The rest of the boys threw their cards to the dealer as well, crapping out of the hand, letting Amaunet take the pot.

"What'd you have?" the dealer asked Amaunet, leaning in towards her.

"Nothing," Amaunet said shortly, flipping her cards over. The boys immediately groaned as one, one of them pounding his fist onto the table.

"Teana!" one of them whined. "We're playing for keeps here."

Teana shrugged, then turned back to Akiiki.

"Doesn't that constitute participating in a card game?" Akiiki asked slyly.

"I just can't help myself," Teana said sheepishly.

Akiiki rain his nails over her soles, gripping her ankle. Teana squealed and jerked her foot away, kicking his shoulder.

"I'll think about it," Teana repeated, standing up.

"It's a real shame," Akiiki said wistfully. "All that talent at reading people and bluffing, being wasted fishing, don't you think?"

Teana said nothing, slowly walking away from her friend.

.

"Your rack is seriously awesome."

Teana faked a smile, steepling her fingers on the table in front of her, watching the man opposite her at the table attack the giant hunk of beef in front of him with both hands.

"Thank you," she said stiffly.

"No, I mean, our kids will never go hungry with those things."

Teana winced. Akiiki _would _be a lot better than this guy, she had to admit, even with the weirdness.

"So, I'm looking for a woman who knows how to really prepare a good meat dish," the man continued, talking with his mouth full. "How are you with meat?"

"Well, I can learn," Teana said quietly. "I can learn a lot of things."

"How are you in the sack?" he asked, following the question up by glugging down most of his beer mug.

"I need to step out for a moment," Teana said, standing up and making for the door.

"W-wait, what? What's wrong?" the guy asked, holding his hands out. "Come on!"

Teana hurried her pace, shoving her way past a crowd and out into the street.

"Ra!" she hissed, storming down the street towards the south.

.

"I think he said...a grand total of six or seven lines before I walked out," Teana muttered. She was holding her fishing rod in both hands, seated on the wooden dock out in the middle of the wide river, propping the rod up inbetween her knees. Her line was out in the water, a little piece of wood floating where it entered the water. "Absolutely disgusting."

The dock had a total of half a dozen fishermen, each taking a spot somewhere on the wooden platform, line out and waiting for the prize that only came along a few times a day. Each had a pail next to them holding the catches of the day. The dock extended nearly all the way across the river.

"It's a fair question," Phut replied uneasily. "I mean, I'm trying to see things from the perspective of the guy, it's fair that he would want to know something like that."

"Phut, listen to me," Teana said, turning to her. "It's not a fair question, and don't you ever think it is. This society has brainwashed us into accepting things like that, but take it from me. It's not acceptable. Trust me on this. They try to trick you into thinking it's okay, but it's not. It's rude and disrespectful."

Phut shruggled. "My first husband asked me a similar set of questions when we met, is all."

"Well, it's not okay." Teana shook her head. "One day, men will treat us with respect. We may not live to see it, but we can sow the seeds by not standing for things like that."

"You say some interesting things, Teana," Phut said. "It was lucky that I got the seat next to you on the docks. The conversation makes the time go by faster."

"This has got to be the worst job in the world," Teana spat. "I can feel my brain rotting. How long have you been doing this crap?"

"Since my husband died in the war. Two and a half years." She pulled back on her rod slightly.

"This is day sixteen for me and I already wanna kill myself," Teana said bitterly. "You know, the married life can not possibly be worse than this."

"I've been married," Phut said. "I mean, I don't know, better, worse. You just make sure the house is clean and food is ready when your husband is home. And if anything needs to be done around the house, if you even try asking him for help, he just starts ranting about how hard he works at his job or whatever. Might not be your thing."

Teana sighed. "I guess Akiiki is the one. But it's going to be so weird."

"He sounds like a great guy. Wish I knew guys like that. Didn't even know they existed until I met you, really." Phut wiped some loose sweat off her face.

"Yeah, I don't have much of a choice, do I?" Teana pursed her lips. "Yeah, I'll give it a shot. I just can't imagine looking at him in...that way, you know?" She suddenly stood up, pulling her rod out of the water. "Eh, to hell with this. I'm taking what I've got to the buyer." She pulled her line in, then grabbed her wooden pail. A few fish corpses were laying at the bottom of the container.

"I'll come with you," Phut said quickly, standing up and pulling her line in. "It's getting kinda late anyway."

.

"I'm seriously considering cutting my feet off," Teana whined, standing in line one spot ahead of Phut as other fishermen took their catches to the market to be sold to one of the distributors. The line moved quickly, surrounded on all sides by crowds of people moving through the busy street. "I think it would be less painful than what I feel right now."

"You should start walking it barefoot, like me," Phut suggested, drawing a rather nasty glare from Teana. "I'm serious, after a few moon cycles, your callouses will be so bad, you won't feel a thing."

"I'll commit suicide before then," Teana replied. "Forget it."

"It gets easier," Phut said comfortingly. "Everything gets easier."

"Not when you know something better," Teana grunted, eyes darting around the crowd. "I know what it means to live."

"Are you ever going to tell me your story? You keep talking about knowing what it means to live, but what does that even mean?" Phut asked, coughing into her fist.

Teana shook her head. "You wouldn't believe my story if I told you."

"I'd still like to hear it."

"Maybe one day. It's honestly a little embarrassing, me being here now. But I guess it's fair. With where I was born, this is where I belong, so says society." She shrugged.

Teana suddenly found herself at the front of the line, and quickly stepped forward to dump her catches on a brass set of scales. The man behind the small counter quickly used a series of weights in front of him, setting them on the opposite side until he had a good idea of the weight. He reached underneath the table with his right hand, then pulled it out and extended it towards her. She reached out and he poured twenty debens into her palm.

"I used to wipe my ass with twenty debens," she muttered to Phut out of the corner of her mouth as she turned away from the table. "I gotta go get food, see you tomorrow."

Phut nodded and Teana trudged off.

.

"Is something wrong today?" Teana asked, brow furrowed as she looked around the marketplace. Usually the very definition of 'bustling', the market had practically no activity today and was very nearly deserted. She was going through an apple cart, trying to find good ones to pick out. A thin, bearded man was standing behind the cart, watching her carefully.

"No, things will get busy again in a bit, just slowed down for a bit," the man replied, holding his hands behind his back.

"Well, lucky me," Teana said.

"Everyone went to Akhekh's den, they're about to have a public execution. People love to watch that stuff, you know. I'd go myself, but I got to watch my wares." The man shrugged. "Always good to see some punk get what's coming to him. Akhekh always gives them a good lashing before ending them."

"Uh-huh," Teana said, not really paying attention.

"A lot of people were saying they're eager to see this one bite it. Apparently this kid is suspected of yanking decks in card games. Casinos, street games, he's gotten kicked out of a ton of places, made a lot of enemies."

Teana froze mid-grab, slowly tilting her head up to look at the merchant. "Yanking?"

"Y-yeah, it's when you deal out in cards and use tricks to give yourself good cards-"

Teana dropped her empty basket on the ground, leaning forward and grabbing the front of the merchant's robe. "What's his name?" she demanded.

"R-Ramses," the merchant answered, pulling back slightly from her touch. "Are you alright?"

She didn't waste time responding, instead turning down the market street and sprinting off towards the south, empty wooden basket long forgotten.

.

Teana skidded to a halt in front of the small staircase going down below ground level, taking the steps down three at a time before pounding her fist onto the door as hard as she could.

"Open up!" she yelled, slamming the surface next to the eye-slit over and over. Finally, the slit slid open and a pair of eyes peered out. Immediately, the slit closed back up. She waited a second, but the door didn't open, so she continued pounding.

"OPEN THIS DOOR!" she roared. "I'm not going to stop knocking until you open up!" She kept her barrage of knocks up, now doing it with both hands. She looked down and saw a stone the size of her fist, so she picked it up and started hammering it on the door, the added weight causing the door to shake slightly with each pound.

"THAT'S IT!"

The door creaked open, revealing the same doorman as had been there before, holding a small club out and grimacing.

"You asked for this you little bitch!" he snapped, taking one step towards her and raising the club up.

Teana simply hurled the stone right at him, hearing a sickening crunch at it contacted his nose and knocked him backwards onto the floor. He thudded down powerfully, the stone skipping off to lay next to his head. He blinked a few times, then simply closed his eyes and his head lolled to the side.

Teana stepped over him and took large strides down the hall, hearing commotion from the room at the end. Without hesitation, she stormed right into the room and was immediately confronted by three large men, each holding a small dagger.

"I'm here to see Akhekh!" she said loudly, putting her hands on her hips and staring right at the middle man. "Out of my way!"

"I should kill you," he replied, brandishing the knife. "No one gets in here without Akhekh's explicit permission."

"Well, I'm here, so that's clearly not true," Teana retorted hotly. "Out of my way!"

"What are you doing here?"

The three men turned around. Akhekh was sitting at the stone circular table, elbows propped on the table and head resting in his hands.

"I already took all your gold. Unless you have more," Akhekh continued, glaring at Teana. "If you do, I feel compelled to recommend you turn around while you still have it."

"Where's Ramses?" she demanded, stepping forward and roughly pushing past the large men, ignoring their attempts to block her. "I want to see him!"

"Ramses is mine now," Akhekh said simply. "Forget about him. Or go outside and enjoy the show, it's going to start quite soon."

"That wasn't a request!" she shouted, coming up to the table and slamming her right fist onto it. "I want to see him!"

Akhekh held up his right index finger and wagged it back and forth. "Bad idea, to associate yourself with him. Trust me, he deserves his fate. I'd walk away from this one, this one's not good for you."

Teana huffed, looking down at the table surface for a moment before regathering his thoughts. "What did he do?" she finally asked through gritted teeth.

"He owes me gold," Akhekh replies simply. "Has owed me gold for a long time. I am sick of waiting. So now, I make an example of him, make sure nobody ever fails to pay me back ever again."

Teana scoffed. "There must be some mistake, Ramses wouldn't have borrowed gold from you. I need to see him."

Akhekh licked his lips, then looked to his left in thought.

"Fine." He stood up, brushing his torso off. "But I get to supervise the entire conversation."

He walked over to a small side door in the right wall, Teana following on his heels. Akhekh grabbed the door handle and pulled it open, revealing a dark chamber, perhaps a third the size of her bedroom. Inside the stone walls was a small wooden chair, Ramses tied to it via rope around his wrists, ankles, torso, and forearms.

"Ramses!" Teana gasped, stepping into the chamber as Akhekh reached up and lit a torch up by the door.

"Hey, Teana! I just knew you'd be the one to get me out of this, somehow," Ramses grinned, shifting in his chair. "So, how's fishing?"

"Knock it off, what the hell is going on?" Teana hissed, walking up right in front of him.

"Uh, well...gosh, where do I start?" He looked up at the ceiling. "That's a tough question."

"We don't have time for games!" Teana snapped. "Hurry it up, tell me what happened."

Ramses sighed. "Well, as it turns out, when this guy tells you that you better pay him back when you take out a loan from him, he means it. And here we are." He shrugged.

"You borrowed from Akhekh?" Teana spat. She turned around to look at Akhekh, who was just standing there in the door threshold with his arms crossed over his chest. "Why?"

"Because I wanted to start rolling with the big boys, you know? I wanted to start playing in some real games, the big games in the casinos! You gotta have gold to make gold, so I figured, I'll get some gold together so I can get the ball rolling." Ramses bit his lip. "And in my defense, it worked really, really well."

"When was this?" Teana demanded, reaching forward and grabbing the front of Ramses's robe. Akhekh reached forward and pulled her back.

"Don't touch the prisoner, please," he insisted.

"About...eight moon cycles ago," Ramses said. "I took out five thousand debens, and I'd owe six after two moon cycles. It was great, I finally got out of those empty, meaningless games."

"Great, good for you, _then what?_" Teana spat.

"Well, the two months went by, and...he had his guys ask for it, but I told them to...you know, let it ride and let the interest rate keep running," Ramses replied frantically. "My thinking was, the more gold I had, the more gold I could make, and I could make gold a lot faster than the interest rate on my loan. I did calculations and everything, I realized it would be more profitable for me to just keep the loan out."

"Brilliant," Teana groaned, putting her palm up onto her face. "Alright, genius, what happened?"

"Well, my thought process was, I'd just let the loan keep running until Akhekh...you know, insisted on me paying it. I'd just keep it out as long as I could, and whenever he gave me an ultimatium, I'd pay it back then."

Teana lunged forward again, coming just short of touching him. "Newsflash, idiot! He's about to kill you! NOW IS THE TIME TO PAY HIM!"

Ramses glanced to the side. "Yeah, that's the thing...really awful timing, really, you couldn't make this stuff up."

"Ramses, he's about to torture and kill you in public! It's time to cough up, whatever he's asking." Teana tapped her foot on the ground. "I can't believe I have to tell you this stuff."

"I don't have it," Ramses said suddenly, giving a sheepish grin. "You know, everything was going great, and like I said...awful timing, the last half moon cycle or so has been brutal for me. I don't have it. Half a moon cycle ago I would have had it five or six times over."

Teana pursed his lips. "You don't have it."

"Yup. It's nuts, half a moon cycle ago I was around...sixty, seventy thousand debens up, and then the cards went cold-"

"Okay, okay, STOP!" Teana roared, causing even Akhekh to recoil slightly. "First of all, what the _hell_ are you trying to buy that you need all that gold for? Second, how the _hell_ did you lose it? And third, how the _hell_ did you let things get to this point?"

"Hey, bad luck, bad timing," Ramses shrugged. "Look, I'm not okay with being a peasant. I wanted to go bigtime, alright? And in order to be bigtime, you need a ton of gold. I mean, millions of debens. And debens disappear really quick when you play casino no limit-"

"And you kept playing?" Teana shouted. "Ramses, you never chase losses in casinos, you know that. You step out and make it back on the street, what are you thinking?"

"Well, to get where I needed to get, you have to play no limit!" Ramses said. "I was taking a shot for the big time and the cards just happened to go cold, it happens!"

Teana sighed heavily. "You don't have it."

"Nope," Ramses said, shaking his head. "The interest drove it up to ten thousand."

"Okay, fine," Teana said, voice going even. "What _do_ you have?"

"Nothing," Ramses replied. Teana shot a nasty glare at him. "Well, they took it all. I was down to two and a half thousand, they took all of it when they grabbed me, so I guess I'm still seven and a half in the hole."

"Seven and a half," Teana repeated, putting her hands up to her face and giving a few unbelieving chuckles. "Seven and a half thousand,"

"Yup, that's the hole," Ramses said. "So-"

"Well, Ramses, I can't help you," Teana said, putting her hands on her hips. "I don't have seven and a half thousand."

"Really?" Ramses said. "Are you sure? I was kinda hoping, I mean, you tend to be full of surprises, pulling out that fifteen thousand. You sure you don't have a couple grand shaking around in that chest of yours-"

Teana slammed her fists into the side wall of the cell, then let out an ear-piercing scream. Ramses and Akhekh both leaned away from her. She spun around to face Ramses.

"You're such an _IDIOT_!" she screamed. "It's unbelievable! You could have paid that loan of _any time_ and you just let it...linger. You were a single trip into town from being done with it, but noooo, put it off until the last minute, who cares about being thousands of debens in debt with Akhekh! That's not dangerous at all! Oooh, look at me, I'm playing no limit in casinos, no risk involved in that, I'm gonna lose everything, but it's okay, it's not like I'm _ten thousand debens in debt!_"

"Hey, you know what?" Ramses spat. "Yeah, I messed up, okay, I did! But look who's talking! You lost fifteen thousand debens in a single night! You put twenty-two and a half grand on a single hand and lost! That wasn't a risk? That wasn't a big loss? That didn't happen?"

"Oh Ra, just shut up, you stupid, stupid child!" Teana said, pounding her forehead into the wall of the cell.

"What's the difference between you and me, huh?" Ramses continued. "We both lived life on the wire, and we both fell off! It happens! At least I didn't get scared and give up at the first sign of trouble!"

"Yeah, you ignored those signs, and now you're gonna die!" Teana spun around and walked out of the cell, stepping past Akhekh. "Nothing I can do about it!"

"Yeah, well, it was nice to see you too!" Ramses shouted at her back.

Teana turned around by the door back out into the hall to look at Akhekh. "Business concluded," she said sourly.

Akhekh nodded, then turned towards the open cell door. "There will be one lash for every deben you owe me. I hope you're ready."

Teana stepped out into the hall, but immediately felt a burning, twisting sensation in the pit of her stomach. She took a few steps forward, towards the still unconscious door man, but broke out into a fit of sweating. She drooped down onto her knees, eyes going wide, grabbing at the walls on either side of her.

She panted heavily a few times, looking around frantically.

_I've known Ramses about as long as I can remember. We grew up together. We both came from very similar situations and dealt with it in the same way. I guess, no matter how big of an idiot he is, I know deep down, he'd do the same thing for me. Life isn't worth living unless you can live with yourself._

She stumbled back up to her feet and turned around, running back into the private card room and holding her hand out towards Akhekh. "WAIT!" she screamed.

Akhekh turned to look at her.

"Look, you'll get your gold, I promise, but you can't kill him!" she begged, sweat staining her robe and dripping down onto the floor. "Please, don't do this, he'll get you your gold."

"His debt was due six moon cycles ago," Akhekh said simply, walking towards her. "I asked him many, many times to pay up, and every time he refused. He's had as many chances as I'm willing to give."

"L-listen, Akhekh," Teana continued. "You're gonna get your gold, I swear, isn't that what you want?"

Akhekh shrugged. "Perhaps. But a public execution scares people into making sure they pay me in the future. I will take it."

"Look, I'll get your gold," Teana said, pressing her hands up to her chest. "I'll get it. You just have to give me some time. I'll get the gold."

Akhekh laughed. "I took all your gold! I saw it in your eyes when I turned those Gods over. It was the look of a person who just lost everything they had!"

"N-no, I have more, you just need to give me time," Teana insisted, holding her hands out towards Akhekh. "Please, I-"

"I am tired of promises and excuses," Akhekh said, turning around and waving her off. "Begone!"

She put her hands down, brushing by her robe pouch. Her hand hit something in there, and she reached in, realization dawning over her.

_Life is a string of getting lucky, then unlucky, then lucky again over and over. I'm not sure which one this is, but this morning I needed to grab some gold so I could buy food on the way home. I got up late and in my rush to get out of the house and to the docks, I grabbed my entire gold sack. And it's still sitting here, right in my robes._

"I have five hundred gold debens right here!" she shouted, producing the sack just as two of the guards were about to close in on her from behind. "Look, I have more gold, there's five hundred in here!"

Akhekh slowly spun back around, looking at her, then looking at the sack. He approached her, pursing his lips.

"See, I can get you your gold," Teana repeated, holding the sack out towards Akhekh. He took it and opened it, looking inside.

"Where does a peasant girl keep getting so much gold from, I wonder," he asked rhetorically, fingers digging through the bag.

"You just give me some time, I'll get everything you're owed. You'll get what's coming to you, I just need time," Teana pleaded.

Akhekh looked at her again, then sighed. "Very well." He turned around, holding the sack up in his right hand. "Urshu, go outside and tell the crowd the execution has been delayed!"

One of the guards turned around and walked into the hallway behind him. Teana ran forward towards Akhekh. "Okay, give it here."

Akhekh pulled it away from her, raising an eyebrow at her. "What, the bag?"

"N-no, the gold!" Teana said, pointing up at it. "I need it, I'm going to need it if I'm going to get the rest of the gold for you."

Akhekh shook his head. "This five hundred debens is the only reason why I am not going to kill Ramses today. If you want your gold back, then Ramses dies now."

"Listen," Teana said slowly. "I understand your position, I do, but I need that gold to get the rest. So, you just need to trust me. Give it back, give me some time, and I'll have everything you're owed. All seven thousand five hundred."

Akhekh sneered. "You hope to win it playing cards? Please." He turned away from her. "If I give this gold back to you, you'll just lose it. No, that is not the deal. My deal is this five hundred will buy you some time. Not negotiable."

Teana walked back up behind him. "Akhekh, please listen to reason-"

"Non. Negotiable." Akhekh said sternly. "Now, let's see, five hundred. I will give you...the rest of today, all of tomorrow, and the early morning of the day after." He nodded. "You have until the sun rises in two days to get my gold. All of it."

"Akhekh, please, I need more time than that." Teana jumped in front of him and looked him straight in the eyes. "That's barely a day and a half. If you just gave me...ten, twelve days, I could-"

"I have waited long enough to be paid back on this loan," Akhekh spat. "It is with great indecision that I give you a day and a half. So, with this five hundred, Ramses's debt is now precisely seven thousand gold debens. Seven thousand gold debens due to me in a day and a half, when the sun rises, that is the deal."

"Akhekh-" Teana said, but was quickly cut off.

"The only deal I will offer," Akhekh said harshly. "Oh, and lastly, if you fail to get my gold together in time, I will hold you responsible for the debt, same as Ramses. If I do not get my gold, you will be mine to do as I please with, just like Ramses."

Teana glanced down to the floor, skin crawling and her stomach doing flips.

"Not too late to back out," Akhekh offered, holding his empty left hand out towards Teana and his right hand, with the gold sack, in the other. "Your choice."

Teana bit her lower lip, then closed her eyes and stuck her hand out to shake Akhekh's. "Deal." she choked out.

"I knew it!" Ramses shouted from the small chamber he was tied up in. "See, I knew you'd come back, you always help your friends!"

"Shut up, RAMSES!" Teana roared, turning around and storming out of the room. "Shut up you stupid idiot," she muttered to herself, stomping down the hall and stepping over the doorman. "Course...I'm a bigger idiot than you..."

.

Teana knocked on the door a few times, letting her arm hang limply at her side as she waited. A second later, Kafele opened the door, slowly looking her body up and down. She was covered in sweat and panting, leaning over while gripping the wall next to the door, looking ready to collapse.

"Teana, Ra, what's up? You trying a career as a marathon runner?" Kafele asked, stepping aside as she limped in. "Take a seat."

"I don't have long," she panted, leaning over and putting her hands on her knees. "You got a minute?"

"For you? Always, what's up?" Kafele replied, putting his hands in the side pockets of his robes. "You sure you're alright?"

"I'm...well, no, I'm not fine." She stood back up straight, closing her eyes and expelling a breath. "Kafele, I'm in...I'm in a bad place. I need to get together some gold. And I'm not talking passively. I need gold and I need it quickly."

"You're already out?" Kafele asked quietly, walking up closer to her.

"Yeah, funny story behind that, I don't have time for it," Teana said. "I got nothing. Look, I searched every single bit of my hut three times, going into every single corner, every nook and cranny...I found twenty five debens. Twenty-five. And all evening, I went up and down section six, asking everyone for whatever they could spare. I mean, every single person here, I'm not proud of myself, but I had to try. I asked every single person here, whatever you can give, I need it now."

"And?" Kafele questioned.

"Combine it all, it was...about another twenty-five," Teana said in a low whisper. "I didn't take it, it's not going to do me any good. Twenty-five doesn't get me anywhere. I need help, Kafele, I need it bad."

"Of course," Kafele said. "What do you need? A hundred? Two hundred? Two fifty?"

Teana hesitated, looking over to her left at the blank wall. "I..." she looked back at Kafele. "I need seven thousand gold debens."

"Seven thousand," Kafele repeated, letting the obvious subtext hang in the air. "I need a blowjob from the Queen of Egypt."

Teana gave a small smile and gave a tiny nod. "Yeah," she said.

"Get out of here...seven grand?" Kafele scoffed. "Seven thousand? You're serious?"

"Yes. Come on Kafele, seriously, this is real. I've looked everywhere I can for help and there's not much to speak of, I need you for this. I mean, a hundred won't even get me started."

Kafele glanced around, then sighed. "Yeah...I mean, if a hundred won't help...five hundred's not much better. What the hell's going on?"

Teana swallowed down some bile. "It's Akhekh."

Kafele nodded. "Uh-huh. Losing everything to him wasn't enough, huh?"

"No," Teana said, shaking her head. "It's not that. Ramses went into debt with him, and I...I vouched for him, I guess. I said I'd pay his debt off, so now they're holding me responsible for it. I have less than a day and a half. If I don't get it by then, I'm his to do whatever he wants with."

Kafele sighed heavily, turning his back on Teana and pacing towards his food room. "You know, ever since you lost that hand to Akhekh, not a single person in section six has said a bad word about you. Outside of Ramses, nobody's said a negative thing."

"Yup," Teana replied, putting her hands on her hips.

"We probably shouldn't," Kafele continued. "We owe you a lot, Teana. Without you, we'll all probably be dead by now. None of us should say anything bad about you, regardless of how things broke. But this might be my last chance. So let me be the one person to tell you what you need to hear."

"Okay. Fine." Teana shrugged. "Go ahead."

"You had it all, Teana," Kafele said, walking back towards her. "Had everything you wanted. You got to live comfortably in a modest location, and you had enough to take care of your friends. All hundred plus of them. How many people in the world can say that? Not many. You had it good. You had a system that couldn't be beat. You were slow, you were patient, you were methodical, and you always made enough gold. It was a great system, Teana. Us three worked it like champs, made more gold than most peasants could even dream about. But one day, it wasn't enough for you. You had to chase a stupid longshot fantasy of living in the palace and having the Prince suck on your toes while servants fed you grapes. That's not the way things are for people like us. But you couldn't let it go."

"I know, Kafele," Teana said, a slight bit of annoyance in her voice. "I've thought about it every day since it happened."

"You were born a peasant. You lost both your parents. And yet, here you were. Things were good. You were getting the things you wanted. It was a dream situation for a peasant. Peasants hardly dare dream of making as much gold as you were. As we were. You should have settled for that. Accepted that was as good as you could do. But no. You had to risk all of it for some palace pipe dream."

"Kafele, you know what?" Teana said. "I don't need you to tell me I screwed up, okay? I know. I know I screwed up really bad. You're not helping me by telling me what I already know."

"I play cards now. On my own. Flying solo in town, finding random games and jumping in. It's a good living. I make good gold. And that's all it is. It's a living, Teana. I'll make enough gold to support myself, maybe sometimes save what's left over. I can get married, have kids, and I don't have to be afraid of some soldiers breaking down my door one morning and dragging us off into slavery. That's the dream for us. That's the peak of our existence. And that's what you had, but you couldn't see it."

"Look, I get that, but right now, it's not what I need. I need gold. Whatever gold you can give me, I need it," Teana said.

"Teana." Kafele sighed. "There's no gold. I don't have seven thousand gold debens. I don't have seven hundred. I don't have enough gold to help you out here. Not in the amount you need and the time you're talking about."

Teana gave a incredulous smirk. "Awesome. That's great."

"Don't try to lay guilt on me for this," Kafele said. "I'm not just saying this. If I had enough gold to help you, I'd give it to you. I wouldn't even have to think about it. I'd fork it right over. If I thought...five hundred would help you, I'd give it to you. But not here, no. I give you five hundred, I'm wasting it. You can't turn five hundred into seven thousand in a day. Not on your best day. I don't have five hundred debens to waste. If you were...two thousand in the hole, I'd give you the five hundred. Three thousand? Probably. But seven thousand? No. My five hundred wouldn't help."

"So. That's it then," Teana said, shrugging. "You're the last stone I needed to turn over."

"You did this to yourself, Teana," Kafele replied. "I'm sorry. I am. You should have stuck to the playbook. No risk, low reward. Had to put everything on the line, and now look at you. You should have left Ramses behind. It doesn't feel good, but we've always known that Ramses was either going to end up filthy rich or executed by a loan shark that he stiffed. I can't afford to get involved." He sighed again. "You'll probably wanna go on the run. Make a break for another country, try to get out of Egypt before Akhekh can catch you. If that's what you want to do, I'll do everything I can to help make that possible. I got contacts I can use, people who can help get you to the borders. But, the gold. I have to say no."

"Believe it or not, I understand," Teana said, nodding. "I understand. It's the smart play. I just haven't been making smart plays lately, I guess." She sat down heavily on one of the stools in the main room. "Well, that's it then. Maybe it's for the best then."

"You asked Akiiki yet?" Kafele asked.

Teana shook her head. "He's got a baby brother on the way. Or sister, whatever. I don't have the heart to ask for it. Besides, it's like you said. Maybe he could give me five hundred, but that won't help me, so what's the point?"

"Can't hurt to ask," Kafele commented. "Either way, there's one person you should talk to before you leave."

Teana shook her head. "I can't stand to face her right now. I'm embarrassed and ashamed."

"Teana. Either you're about to flee for another country, or you're about to become one of Akhekh's possessions. Either way, you'll probably never see us again. You gotta say goodbye."

Teana stood back up, puffing her cheeks out. "You're right. Of course. I'll...I'll see her, I guess."

Kafele came up close to her and hugged her. "I'm sorry. If I could help, I would. But I can't."

"I understand," Teana replied hoarsely, returning the hug. "I get it."


	8. What You Put In The Middle

Chapter 8: What You Put In The Middle

.

"You've been a great mentor for me, Sitto. I know you're not my sitto, but it sure feels like it. It kills me to have to do this."

Sitto glanced down at the floor in front of her, a small frown on her face.

"You go squeeze whatever enjoyment you can out of the rest of your life. I'm serious, no one deserves a good end of life more than you. You just forget about me."

"Teana, dammit, you're gonna have to give me more than that," Sitto said, a look of concern on her face. "You come in here at the very crack of dawn and tell me you're going away forever, and you think that's going to satisfy me? Honey, you've underestimated how much I care about you."

Teana sighed. Sitto was seated on her cushioned chair in the center of the main room of her hut, Teana standing against the right wall, near the exit.

"Teana, come on. If you're saying I'm never gonna see you again, the least you can do is tell me why," Sitto insisted. "What's going on?"

"It's embarrassing," Teana said tenatively.

"Well, if you're never going to see me again, what does it matter?" Sitto replied. "Come on."

"Alright." She came up off the wall and walked towards Sitto, crouching down next to her. "You're going to think I'm awful, but...I'm in some seriously bad debt with the worst kind of person. I've tried everything I can think of to get out of it, but I'm out of options. So, after today, I'm either going to be in another country, dead, or his slave. Regardless, you're never gonna see me again."

"Debt?" Sitto repeated. "Oh, Teana-"

"It's not my debt," Teana cut her off. "It's Ramses. I'm a stupid idiot who vouched for him and offered to pay it, so now...I'm responsible for it, same as him."

"Stupid boy," Sitto grumbled. "I always knew he was trouble."

"Me too," Teana said wryly. "But...you know, I couldn't let him die, so I went and did something really stupid. So, I don't know yet, I might go on the run, I might not."

"How long do you have?" Sitto asked.

"Well, the sun just came up, so...I've got exactly a day. And I've got nothing." Teana shook her head. "I've got twenty-five debens, that's what I got. Decent last meal, not much else."

"What is the debt?"

Teana chuckled. "I don't even want to say, really, it's embarrassing. What's the difference anyway, I don't have it."

"Teana. I'm asking you. What's the debt? What will it take to get you out of trouble." Sitto looked at Teana sternly.

Teana pursed her lips. "Well, alright. And before I say, just know that I didn't have a plan when I agreed to take on Ramses's debt, I was just being an idiot, so you don't even have to ask me what I was thinking. Because I wasn't." She paused. "It's seven thousand gold debens."

"Ra," Sitto said hoarsely. "That's a hole."

"You're telling me," Teana said. "So yeah, that's that. I've pursued every option, and there's nothing out there for me. So, it was nice knowing you, and you're a fantastic person, so go live your life to the fullest."

"Five thousand," Sitto said suddenly.

"Excuse me?" Teana said, blinking rapidly.

"If you had five thousand gold debens, would that be enough to get you out of trouble?" Sitto asked.

"Well...I mean, sure, definitely, but-"

"Teana. You probably think I hate men, right?"

"No," Teana said quickly, then wrinkled her nose. "That was my worst bluff ever. Okay, yes, I guess."

"It's an impression I've cultivated over the years," Sitto admitted. "And I haven't particularly minded. But it's not that simple. You see, Teana, I _loved_ my husband. And he loved me. He understood our plight. He understood. I wouldn't have been with him if he didn't understand, I suppose."

Teana nodded, resisting the urge to turn and walk away from the irrelevant conversation piece.

"When he died, well, of course the government came around and scooped up most of his savings, since he didn't have any sons to inherit it. Leave us with the crumbs, you know how it works. But, my husband, the war hero that he was, well, the government respected him and thought a lot of him. There wasn't any intense, close investigation with his wealth, they were willing to take his word for it. So, they wouldn't notice if he was to, say, lie about his savings."

"Sitto-"

"So he fudged the numbers. Gave me a small sack of diamonds, told me to hide it. Five thousand gold debens worth, told me to use it one day to enjoy my life. That was over a decade ago. I guess I didn't do a very good job of enjoying my life, because it's done nothing but collect dust."

"Sitto, I'm really not asking you for-"

"So, clearly, I don't need it for myself." She stood up. "And I am _not_ going to let it sit there and do nothing for anyone, when it could very well save your life."

Teana's mouth dropped open, and she looked down at the floor. "Sitto, I-"

"Come with me."

.

Sitto slowly unraveled the parchment scroll she pulled from the bottom of her parchment container until it was flat in her hands. A small leather sack was revealed to be hidden inside the scroll. Teana took it and Sitto dropped the parchment. Teana opened it up and peaked inside, looking at a small pile of diamonds.

"Five thousand. Now you go get yourself out of trouble." Sitto said, patting her on the shoulder. "It should be used for something. I could never figure out how to use it, but I'm sure you'll be able to come up with something."

"Sitto, I..." Teana shook her head in disbelief, closing the sack back up. "I don't even know what to say. I swear to every God there is, I'm going to pay you back."

"I don't want you to think about that, Teana," Sitto said. "You just need to think about how you can use this to save yourself. That's all that matters to me."

Teana nodded, still in mild shock.

"Now go on and take care of your problems," Sitto said, turning her around and pushing her towards the door.

.

Teana almost skipped down down the sand street towards her hut, heart all the way up into her throat and a grin plastered onto her face that just wouldn't go away. It was almost as if she didn't still have two thousand debens to make up. That two thousand debens suddenly seemed like nothing.

She jumped up to her door and pushed it open energetically, skipping in and barely reacting when Akiiki and Kafele were both seated on stools in the main room.

"Teana!" Akiiki immediately yelped, jumping up and running over to her. "Teana, _screw_ my baby brother, or baby sister, or whatever! You've done more for me than a sibling will ever do for me. I've got five hundred gold debens saved up, say the word and it's yours! I don't care if you waste it, I have to give you a chance."

Teana simply embraced Akiiki in a bear hug, jumping up and wrapping her legs around his waist. Akiiki hugged her back.

"Kafele told me everything, and I'm here for you. I'm dead serious, take my five hundred and do whatever you can. I won't be able to live with myself if I don't at least try."

"Oh, Akiiki, you're the best friend a girl could ask for." Teana dropped off of him. "But I'll pass."

"Hey, Teana," Kafele said, standing up. "I talked with Akiiki, and...you know, if you take his five hundred, I'll give you five hundred of my own. A thousand debens, one day, it could happen. You could at least get close, and then who knows what happens...it's worth a shot."

"Boys," Teana said seductively, plopping down on her cushioned chair inbetween them. "You're too late."

She reached down into her robe pocket and pulled out a small leather sack, tossing it to Kafele. He took it and peaked inside, then shook his head and closed it up, tossing it back to her. "You know, I'm not even surprised anymore. Nothing you do surprises me anymore. You probably found a giant diamond mine in your armpit. I give up trying to figure this stuff out."

"You're kidding me!" Akiiki screeched, lunging forward and grabbing the sack, peeking inside. "That's gotta be...that's-"

"Five thousand gold debens worth," Teana said. "I've got one full day to turn it into seven thousand."

"Okay, okay," Kafele said, rubbing his chin. "We each give you our five hundred, you've got six. And then...then..."

"I got it!" Akiiki said, snapping his fingers. "One of us goes to Akhekh and takes out a thousand deben loan. We go, give the thousand to Teana, she takes her seven thousand debens to Akhekh, gets out of debt, and we get to reset the clock with a one thousand deben debt! We'll have a few moon cycles to make it back, no problem!"

Teana shook her head. "No. We are not messing with Akhekh anymore. Out of the question, we don't need to take out another loan."

"Okay. Okay, how about this?" Kafele said. "We take three thousand to him now, ask him for more time to get the last four thousand. See if we can get...ten, fourteen days, maybe even more. Then, we'll have plenty of time to turn two into four, we can take things nice and easy."

"Akhekh won't go for that," Teana said. "If I don't show up tomorrow morning with the full seven thousand, Ramses is dead and I'm all his. Trust me."

"Well, then what?" Akiiki asked, raising his hands up to his sides. "Any bright ideas?"

"Come on," Teana said, smirking. "We all know there's one way for people like us to turn five thousand into seven thousand quickly. We all know how we're gonna do it."

"I thought you retired?" Kafele said, raising an eyebrow.

Teana grinned. "I am. And don't you forget it. Now suit up, boys. I'm looking for a big game to save my life, and I need it fast."

.

"Forget it," the man said, waving Akiiki and Teana off. "Out of the question, I'm not playing cards with a girl! I'd never live it down. Both of you, scram."

"Come on, man," Akiiki said, holding his palms out. "You'd be fulfilling a lifelong dream for the girl, she's my sister, that's all it is! She's got her own gold, she wants to play, what's the big deal?"

"I have friends in noble families who probably wouldn't ever talk to me again if they found out I played cards with a girl," the man replied, finality in his voice. "It's not worth it. Those noble connections are worth a thousand times more than your four thousand gold debens. Now beat it, I'm not discussing this."

"Okay, okay, fine," Akiiki said, backing away from the table, Teana following. "We're going, we're going."

Reluctantly, Teana turned around and walked next to Akiiki, the two of them leaving the high-end cafe.

As soon as they left the cafe, they pushed through a crowd of people walking down the street and entered the alleyway between buildings, running towards Kafele.

"No go?" Kafele said, pressing his hands up against either building.

"They wouldn't go for it." Akiiki ran up in front of Kafele. "This is bad, that's the fifth dud today."

"I know, I can count!" Kafele spat. "Ugh, I can't remember the last time it was this bad!"

"This is what happens when you chase big games. The players are less likely to go for it." Akiiki put his hands up over his face. "The sun is starting to go down, what do we do?"

"I have to have a big game, or I'm wasting my time," Teana said. "Okay, the sun's going down, that could help, most of the games are bigger at night."

"But there are a lot fewer games," Kafele said warningly. "And the bigger the game, the less likely they'll be willing to play with a woman."

"We need to find something now, or else it'll be too late," Akiiki moaned. "We're running out of time, we've got half a day left."

"We need to temper expectations, go for a lesser game and hope you clean them out," Kafele suggested.

"That's a risk too," Teana warned. "If things don't break exactly right I might not make it out with enough."

"We need more time," Kafele said frantically. "You used up all your luck when you managed to come up with those diamonds. Finding a good game tonight is a longshot."

"We gotta try it," Akiiki said resignedly. "Go to Akhekh, tell him we're up to five thousand, but we need a couple more days to get the full seven. If he loves gold as much as you say, he should at least consider it."

"Yeah, that's gotta be it." Kafele shrugged. "Tell him you have five, but you need a couple days to find a game so you can get up to seven."

Teana bit her lip. "No, no," she muttered, pressing her forehead up against the wall. "It won't work, I played Akhekh in cards once and he cleaned me out. He doesn't respect me, he doesn't think I'm good at cards."

"Can't believe it," Akiiki said, shaking his head. "We get to five thousand, but that last two just...won't show up. We need to pursue other options."

Suddenly, Teana looked up at the darkening sky. "Wait a minute."

Akiiki and Kafele turned to look at her.

"Wait...that's it."

"What's up?" Akiiki asked. "What's it?"

"Akhekh doesn't think I'm good at cards." She tapped her hand against the wall a couple of times. "That's it."

"Teana, Teana," Kafele said, walking up behind her and grabbing her hand. "No. First, there's no reason for him to go for it, and second...there are other options."

Teana spun around. "No. That's it. I'll go challenge Akhekh. He thinks he owns me, that he can beat me at will. So he'll go for it, and then I just have to beat him."

"Teana, that's how we got here in the first place," Akiiki said, coming up next to her with his hands out. "And Kafele is right, there's no reason for him to even go for it, he won't have anything to gain."

"I can get him to bite. I know I can," Teana said, nodding. "He'll go for it."

"Teana, Akhekh is a professional level card player. He's a professional. That's not a sure thing, you know it." Kafele grabbed her shoulders. "Don't do this. He's already beaten you once, he can do it again. Don't take this kind of chance."

"I know he beat me, okay?" Teana said, scowling slightly. "I remember. But that was then, and this is now. I don't have much of a choice."

"There are always other choices, Teana, don't do this," Akiiki begged. "Coming up with that five thousand was a miracle, if you lose it, you're really done. Don't put it on the line. You've already tried that and it didn't work, don't do it again."

"No, this is the way it ends," Teana said, pointing down at the ground emphatically. "This is how it has to happen. I play Akhekh for it."

Kafele scoffed. "You know what, Teana, fine. Go ahead, risk it all again. There are other choices here, but you're not seeing them for some reason. Go make the same mistake you made before. Whatever."

"He beat me, once," Teana said through gritted teeth. "You lose sometimes. But I can beat him, I know I can."

"But you might _not_, that's the thing!" Kafele hissed. "Playing Akhekh is why we're here in the first place, and now you want to fix the problem by repeating your mistakes! It's insane! All that stuff you said that morning after you came back from his den, did it all mean nothing? All that stuff about it being a man's game and how you weren't a good player, you didn't take any of that seriously?"

Teana paused, slowly sliding down the wall and sitting down on the sand.

"But, you know what, I can't stop you. So go ahead. Throw it all away. Forget the lessons of that day. Forget them all." Kafele turned away and started walking down the alley. "But I'm done. You're not the person I thought I knew. Ever since you went to that damn party."

"The party wasn't the start of it," Teana said suddenly, looking down at the sand in front of her. Kafele turned back around. "The party was just a spark."

"What's that?" Akiiki asked. "What are you talking about?"

"That stuff I said that morning...what else would I say at that point? I was angry and shocked, all that stuff I said, it's not true, I was just angry." She looked up at Kafele. "I am a good player. And I know I belong at the big table. I do."

"You're good, Teana," Kafele said. "Real good. But maybe you're not big table good. Maybe you were right about that."

"You know what?" Teana said, biting her lower lip. "That hand, it wasn't bad luck. I wasn't unlucky. Akhekh outplayed me, that's all it was. He suckered me in, fooled me, and took me for everything I had. He beat me, he outplayed me, I can admit that. But you know what? I'm good enough to sit at that table. I am."

"You've got real talent, Teana," Kafele conceded. "You've got twice the talent of me or Akiiki. But there's a big difference between taking gold off of amateurs and playing at a big table, and maybe you're not that good."

Teana shook her head. "I never told anyone this. You wanna know when I started thinking about the big time, guys? When I really started thinking about making it big?"

"It wasn't the party?" Akiiki asked, leaning against the wall.

"Nope," Teana said. "About a year ago. I was disguised as a boy, and I was in a casino. By myself, late at night, just playing twenty fourty. And guess who walks in? Mera."

"_The _Mera?" Kafele asked.

"Yup," Teana replied. "Five-time underground card circuit champion. My idol. Greatest card player who ever lived as far as I'm concerned. So anyway, the whole place stops. _Holy Ra, Mera just walked in, everyone stop and watch._ He goes, sits down at two hundred four hundred. All the other games basically stop, everyone comes over to watch him. Some people, rich people, they sit down to play with him, giving their gold away to this guy. They don't care, they just want to play with a champion. He asks that the pre-card bets get cut down to twenty, and the dealer can't say yes fast enough. And you know what I did?"

"What?" Akiiki asked, putting his hands in his robe's pocket.

"I sat down." Teana shrugged.

"You sat down at two hundred four hundred?" Kafele said, wrinkling his nose. "No way, you'd need to have at least...twenty thousand to play right in that game against a professional. Probably twenty-five."

"I ran home and grabbed four. It was stupid and I couldn't rationalize it, I knew it was probably a bad idea, but...I had to know. Do I belong with this guy? I had to know. So I sat down with four thousand." Teana coughed.

"What happened?" Akiiki asked.

"First...fifteen hands, nothing much going on. I crapped out of most of the hands without betting. And then..."

_._

_Teana peaked down at her cards after the dealer sent them out. Ankh Peasant, Pyramid Nobleman. She looked across the large circular table at Mera, a massive crowd of players behind him, watching his every move. Slowly, Mera considered his cards, then reached for the giant stack of chips in front of him. He grabbed two of them and threw them into the middle._

_"Raise, two hundred." Mera said loudly. Immediately, action went around the left side of the table, everyone getting out of the hand without much of a second thought._

_When it came around to Teana, she made a small move towards her cards, about to throw them back to the dealer. But then, she froze, and glared right at Mera for several seconds._

_She tapped her finger on the tabletop a few times, then grabbed four chips from her much smaller pile and threw them in. "Re-raise, two hundred," she said in a slightly lower voice than she typically used._

_Down the right side of the table it went, everyone folding, throwing their cards back to the dealer, until action got back to Mera. Without a second of hesitation, he grabbed six of his chips and threw them to the middle. "Re-raise, four hundred."_

_Teana quickly grabbed six chips and pushed them to the middle. "Re-raise, four hundred."_

_Mera immediately made a move to his chip pile. But just before his hand came down on his chips, he stopped, then looked back at Teana. Teana gave him nothing but a stony smile, glaring right back at him._

_Mera looked down, peeking at his cards again, then looked back to Teana. She didn't drop her gaze, not allowing a single flicker of emotion to come to her face._

_Mera took several more moments, then finally threw his cards over to the dealer. Teana reached forward and grabbed the pile of chips in the center, Mera watching her with an amused smile._

_"Did you have it?" Mera asked, as Teana took an empty sack off her back and started dumping the chips in it._

_"Sorry, Mera," Teana said, smirking slyly as she stood up. "I don't remember." She turned away from the table, walking towards the chips exchanger counter across the room._

.

"I had nothing, I was holding trash." Teana rubbed her lower lip. "And I just outplayed him. The best card player in Egypt, I took him down. And then I got up and walked away. I scared Mera off of a pot holding rags."

"You put a move on Mera?" Akiiki said disbelievingly. "You took Mera down?"

"You son of a bitch," Kafele said, smirking. "You scored off of Mera."

"I belong at that table. I belong with the big time players. I know I do. Ever since that night, I knew that in the back of my mind I was that good. The party just made me want to act on it. But I've known for a year I was that good."

Kafele walked forward, reached up, and cupped the side of her head. "Teana. You go take that son of a bitch down. You go play at the big table. And you beat the big table."

Akiiki grabbed her right hand, gripping it in his own. "Make him cry."

Teana smiled, then quickly lunged forward and kissed both of them on the cheek. "I'm taking him down."

.

Teana knocked on the large door at the base of the staircase. The slat on the upper part of the door slid open, eyes looking out at her.

The slat immediately closed up, and the door slowly opened. The doorman stood there, scowling, bandages wrapped around his head and covering his nose.

"You..." he muttered, nevertheless stepping to the side. "Count yourself lucky Akhekh told me to let you in if you came by."

Teana stepped in, looking around the simple, small hallway.

"If not, I'd be pummelling you into a pulp as we speak. You'd be dead by now, in fact."

Teana reached her right hand up and flicked her index finger right at the doorman's nose. He screeched and grabbed it, turning away from her as she marched down the hallway.

Ignoring his pained screams, she turned into the den room. Three people were present in the dark, depressing chamber. Akhekh, seated on a cushioned chair in the far corner, and someone she didn't recognize next to him. The third man was positioned behind the counter, hands behind his back and turning to look at Teana as she entered.

"Hey," she called out.

"You have my gold, girl?" Akhekh asked, looking at her.

"Not quite," Teana replied, putting her hands on her hips. "Not quite."

"Then you are wasting time here, go on," Akhekh demanded, waving her away.

"Well, Akhekh, it's still...my gold, isn't it? Right now?" She raised an eyebrow at him.

"True," Akhekh admitted. "It's still your gold. But, the sun just went down, so you have less than half a day. If you do not have all of it by then, then you are mine. Don't worry, I already decided I'm not going to kill you. No, a girl like yourself will be far too useful to have around. I will keep you for myself."

Teana's skin crawled, but she ignored it.

"Well. Less than half a day." She reached into her pocket and pulled out a small sack of diamonds. "I have five thousand here. Five thousand gold debens worth of diamonds. And I'm looking for a game."

Akhekh pointed at the card table. "No one here to play. Sorry, bad luck."

"You're here," Teana said, staring right at him. "Aren't you?"

Akhekh licked his lips, looking around the room.

"Did I hear right?" The man to his right asked, smiling. "Did this girl just ask to play you at cards? Oh man, now I've heard everything."

"You heard right, Aniu," Akhekh said slowly, standing up. "This girl wishes to challenge me to cards. Interesting proposition." He steepled his fingers, looking up at the ceiling. "Let's see. If I win, I take from you the gold you have to pay me anyway in the morning. If you win, I give you the gold that you will then use to pay me. Curious. It would seem I have nothing to gain and everything to lose, isn't that right?"

"Wait wait wait," Aniu said, waving his arm at Akhekh. "I know I didn't hear that right. You said 'if' she wins? That wasn't what you said, was it?"

Akhekh paused, turning around to look at Aniu. "Well..."

"I mean, come on, you don't really think she can beat you, do you?" He asked, pointing at Teana. "Look at her, she's nothing."

Akhekh turned to look back at Teana, who was just smirking nastily at him. He turned to look back at Aniu. "Right. Right, it was just an observation of the stakes, I know she can't..."

"Then let's do it," Teana called out.

"Very well," Akhekh relented, pointing at the counter. "You have five thousand there. We play one on one, we both start with five thousand in chips, and the game goes on until one of us has all of it. No limit."

"Sounds fair." Teana moved to the counter, dropping the sack onto it and allowing the man behind it to take it. "Five thousand."

"One last thing, I want to play with small pre-card bets." Akhekh walked up to the counter, looking down at Teana. "I have tried it recently, it is a much more satisfying way to play. Allows talent to trump luck. How about...ten debens?"

"Sure thing," Teana said, watching as the man behind the counter presented her with assorted chips.

.

Akhekh shuffled the deck a few times. Teana felt butterflies in her stomach, putting her hand down on it to try to settle it down. She glanced around the dank room, recalling memories of her loss half a moon cycle ago.

"Hey, get Ramses out here!" Akhekh said loudly. The man behind the counter immediately moved towards the door in the wall. "He should watch the card game that will decide his fate."

A moment later, the chip man brought out the chair Ramses was tied to, Ramses immediately looking around to grasp the situation. "Hey, Teana, I knew you'd come through!"

"You shut your mouth!" Teana hissed, wringing her hands. "If I get us out of this, I never want to see you again, get it?"

"Hey, come on, ease up," Ramses said, shrinking away from her as the man set him down several feet away from the table. "I made mistakes, you made mistakes, it'll all work out."

Teana pounded her fist on the table. "No! This is not things working out! I'm getting you out of here with your life, and then we're done! Forever!" He turned back to Akhekh, scowling. "Stupid boy."

"Hey, at least I got you playing cards again, you're gonna thank me for that one day," Ramses said.

Teana grabbed an empty wooden cup on the corner of the table and flung it at Ramses's head. The cup connected, drawing a dull thunk and falling to the floor.

"Hey! Teana, I'm tied up here, I can't even duck, that's not fair-"

"Don't make me come over there," Teana said through gritted teeth.

"Heh." Akhekh placed the deck down in front of him. "Stupid children." He pointed at Ramses. "No talking while we play. You say one word and I'll cut your tongue out."

With that, he doled out a card to Teana, gave one to himself, then sent the second out to Teana before giving himself a second.

Teana took a couple deep, settling breaths, then looked down and pulled up the corner of her cards to peek at him. Pyramid Pharaoh, Djed Pharaoh.

"Alright," Teana said quietly, forgetting Ramses was seated a few feet away. "I'll wager. Five hundred." She grabbed five of her black chips and pushed them to the middle.

"Aggressive," Akhekh said slowly, stroking his chin. "Very aggressive." Quickly, he reached towards his chips. "But, I will re-raise." He grabbed three full stacks of his black chips and pushed them into the middle. "I will match your wager, and wager two and a half thousand."

Teana stared at the pot for a moment, putting her elbow on the table and propping her head onto her fist.

_We're one hand into the match, and Akhekh has already pushed me into a match-deciding choice. A bet that big indicates he's holding a pair of Gods, the only hand better than my Pharaohs. I have two choices here. I can't match and let Akhekh see the first three cards. I need to get out of the hand, if I believe him._

_But if I don't believe him..._

"Re-raise, two thousand, I'm all in," Teana said quickly, pushing all her chips to the center. Akhekh's face twitched. He stared at Teana for a few seconds, then looked over at Aniu, who was still seated in the corner.

"Out," Akhekh said slowly. Teana reached forward and grabbed all the chips in the center, pulling them over to her side, stacking them. Akhekh handed her the deck.

_When you play one on one, stack size might be the most important thing. When you have a big stack lead, you're in complete control of the match, and can dictate when you decide to make a play without fear. My luck is back. I just took an eight thousand to two thousand chip lead on the very first hand. Now I just need to lean on him until he falls over. This won't take long._

.

"Alright, I'm gonna bet. Four hundred," Teana pushed four black chips to the center of the table, holding the deck in her right hand.

Akhekh shrugged. "Match," he said casually, pushing in a matching quartet of chips to the pot.

Teana burned a card to the side, then set down a farmer on fifth street. Vizier, God, Priest, Prince, Farmer.

"Pass," Akhekh said lazily, glancing down at his meager chip pile.

"Alright, what is that you've got? Five hundred left?" Teana asked, grabbing five of her black chips and putting them into the middle. "Alright, I wager five hundred, I'm gonna tap you here."

Akhekh sighed and rolled his eyes. "Fine." He grabbed his five remaining chips and slid them to the middle."

Teana grabbed her two cards and flipped them over. A Prince and a Vizier. "Two groups of two."

Akhekh pursed his lips, looked to the side, then leaned back in his chair. "Very good." He waved his hand at the pot. Teana leaned forward and pulled it towards her. "Good hand."

"Thanks," Teana said, counting up her chips.

"Well played," Akhekh added. "Of course, some...luck involved, there, winning the first hand like that."

"Yeah," Teana replied. "Luck. I'll take it."

"As you should," Akhekh said, standing up and stretching. "So very...unsatisfying, I must confess, to have a match decided on the first hand. Such a short match. Unsatisfying."

Teana shrugged. "Sorry."

"To have a card game with the stakes of ten thousand gold debens, plus two lives, end so quickly and easily, to end...after one real hand...it is disappointing." Akhekh paced around his chair a few times.

"I guess." Teana muttered, pouring her chips into a sack.

"You must feel good about yourself," Akhekh added. "Strong enough to take on the world!"

"I feel...I feel fine." Teana lifted the bag up and turned towards the chip counter.

"I feel okay," Akhekh said, shrugging. "So. Seven thousand is mine, three thousand is yours, and you can have this idiot." He pointed his thumb at Ramses.

"Sounds good to me," Teana said, walking up to the counter and setting her bag down on it. "Change em out."

"Or, you could let it ride," Akhekh suggested. "The sun does not come up for quite some time, we have plenty of time to continue our game. Your choice, up to you. I could let this happen."

"Well. Thanks for the offer," Teana said, walking towards Ramses's chair. "But I'm up three thousand gold debens now, free and clear of your debt...that's fine by me. I'll go home with that."

"Fine!" Akhekh said, flopping back down on his chair in the corner. "It doesn't matter anyway."

Teana reached down towards the knot behind Ramses's chair.

"After all, I am paying you with your gold," Akhekh added. Teana froze.

"I'm sorry, what was that?" Teana asked, head flicking back up to look at Akhekh.

"Your gold," Akhekh repeated. "Last time you came in here, you lost...fifteen thousand, so I am still up...ten grand on you. Ten thousand reasons why women still don't belong at the card table."

Teana gave a sardonic grin, shaking his head. "Yeah...yeah..."

_Trying to goad me. To own me. Of course. Old trick, not surprising he'd try to use it. But today, pride and respect and dignity don't matter. Especially on a day like today. Today, the only thing that matters is gold. Everything else is irrelevant. And I can leave now, clear of debt with Akhekh, with my life and Ramses's life. I'm also sixty percent of the way to paying Sitto back. That's a couple of decent card games. One last round of cards before I resume my retirement. It'll be easy. And then I can leave all this behind, get back to fishing. See if Akiiki would be a good husband. That's the smart play._

She came around to the front of the chair, looking the rope over. "Alright, dumbass, how do I get you out...I guess I need a knife."

_It's like I told Ramses once. You can't lose what you don't put in the middle._

Suddenly, Ramses made eye contact with her, and shook his head. Teana stopped, looking right back at him. Slowly, Ramses glanced over at Akhekh in the corner, talking with Aniu, then looked back at Teana and nodded.

Teana stood there, frozen for a second, then glanced down at the floor.

_But you can't win much either._

"Hey, Akhekh," Teana said, slowly turning back around to face him. She swept back over to the counter and grabbed her sack of chips, and bustled back over to the card table. "Deal em."

Akhekh grinned, then stood back up and walked over to the table, clapping. "Ten thousand in chips, please," he asked. The man behind the counter quickly started pulling up chip stacks, setting them on the counter.

"Double the pre-card bets to twenty?" Teana asked, dumping her chips back out onto the table, stacking them by color.

"Sure." Akhekh grabbed the deck and started to shuffle it as a tray was brought over with a pile of chips. He nodded in front of him and the array of chips was placed in front of him. "Game ends when one of us has nothing left."

Teana nodded, biting her lower lip and clenching her fists.


	9. Revenge

Chapter Nine: Revenge

.

"A truly tragic mistake, it would seem, sticking around. Bad judgement."

Teana bit her cheek, looking down at her stack of chips, totalling seven thousand and change, nearly doubled by Akhekh's near-thirteen thousand.

"Don't worry, it'll all be over soon," Akhekh said gloatingly.

Teana peaked down at her cards again. Ankh Peasant, Pyramid Nobleman. Tapping her chips, she looked down at the three community cards. Ankh Farmer, Ankh Artist, Ankh Priest.

_Cards are cold as a dead fish, not much I can do about it right now. Yet, I feel like I've seen this hand before..._

"I raise," Anhekh announced loudly. "One thousand." He pushed a stack of black chips to the center of the table.

Teana contemplated the hand for several seconds, tapping her finger on the tabletop. Suddenly, her eyes widened slightly. "Re-raise, one thousand," she said, grabbing two stacks and pressing them to the pot.

"Oooohhh, Teana, stay away from this one. You're going to regret that!" Akhekh said gleefully, grabbing three black stacks and pushing them in. "Re-raise, two thousand."

Immediately, without hesitation, Teana pushed her entire stack towards the center of the table. "All-in."

Akhekh flinched, frowning, staring at Teana, then considering his chip stack. Teana gave him nothing but a stony smile as he pondered his move.

He reached down for a slice of bread on the food tray set next to him, taking a bite out of it as he considered his next move.

"You win this one," he finally relented, waving the pot towards Teana. She reached forward and pulled everything towards her. "Well played. Did you the type-match run of five, or just the run of five?"

Without a word, as she yanked chips towards her, Teana grabbed her two cards and flipped them over on the middle of the game. As soon as he saw them, Akhekh crushed the bread slice in his hand into a small ball, dropped it on the floor, and pounded the table with both fists.

"Not hungry?" Teana asked sardonically, readjusting herself in her seat.

Akhekh just gave her the stink-eye, scowling. He handed her the deck. "Just deal," he growled.

_Generally, I hide my cards whenever possible, don't let anyone know how I played things. But today is different. Today, I need to get inside Akhekh's head. Get him angry. Make him do something stupid to compensate for the last hand. Today, I'm more than happy to let him know he just got bluffed out of a game-ending pot. Even the great Akhekh isn't immune to getting rattled._

.

"Alright, you've got five hundred left, I'm gonna push you all in," Teana said quickly, grabbing half a stack of black chips and putting them to the middle.

Akhekh sighed, biting his lower lip and glaring at Teana. Finally, he shrugged. "Call," he said, grabbing the five black chips remaining in his stack and putting them in the center.

"Queens full of Princes," Teana announced, flipping her Queen and Prince over on the table. Akhekh only frowned, leaning back in his chair and crossing his arms over his chest. He glanced at his friend, Aniu, out of the corner of his eye, as Teana vacuumed up all the chips in the middle. Aniu raised an eyebrow at him.

After stacking her chips, Teana sat there, hands folded underneath her chin and a fake pleasant smile on her face. They sat there in silence for several seconds, Akhekh finally looking back at her.

"What?" he spat, clearly agitated. "Get your diamonds and get out!"

"I'm not tired," Teana said, smirking wryly. "You tired?"

Akhekh sighed, huffing out the breath in a quick, powerful puff. After several seconds of thought, and a sideways gance at Aniu, he cleared his throat. "Reload!" he yelled at the man behind the counter. "Twenty-thousand."

"That's more like it," Teana muttered.

"You're going to regret this," Akhekh hissed. "By sunrise, you will be mine. Everyone's luck runs out."

Teana handed Akhekh the deck, glancing at Aniu for a second with her little half-smirk, as Akhekh's chips were brought over to him.

"I didn't go through all this trouble to break even with you, Akhekh," Teana said.

"By the morning, you will feel stupid for not being thrilled to walk away even," Akhekh snarled. "You are messing with forces that you can not comprehend."

"I have fifteen thousand in chips in front of me that would say otherwise," Teana replied. "Raise the pre-card bets to fifty."

.

Aniu stumbled through the doorway, hands in his pockets. "The sun is going to be coming up soon, enough is enough, Akhekh." He walked over to the table where Teana and Akhekh were sitting, placing his palms down on the table surface. "Once is a fluke, twice is a coincidence, but three? You've been dancing with her all night, take the girl down already."

Akhekh frowned, glaring over at his friend. "Can't get rid of her. Once she is mine, she may prove to be even more useful than I thought."

"Then make her yours. Take her down," Aniu said firmly, walking back over to his seat.

Akhekh dealt out the cards, Teana contemplating her stack. After several dozen hands since Akhekh reloaded, nothing had been accomplished, both players sitting on exactly twenty-thousand. After the cards were out, Teana took a look at hers.

"You're not getting rid of me anytime soon," Teana said quietly, grabbing one of her black chips. "I'll double my pre-card bet."

"Okay," Akhekh said, grabbing one black chip and one red chip and haphazardly tossing them into the center. "I match."

Akhekh burned a card to the side, then took the next three in the deck and flipped them over onto the table. Pyramid Teacher, Was Priest, Djed Vizer.

Teana bit her lower lip. "I'll pass on that,"

Akhekh slowly reached for his stacks, grabbing one stack of black chips in either hand and moving them towards the middle with a deliberate, snail-like pace.

"Two grand," he announced as he set the chips down.

Teana sighed, then glanced over to the side at Ramses, still tied to the chair.

"Alright, I'll match the two grand." Teana cleared her throat, pushing two black stacks in.

"Making prayers on fourth and fifth street?" Akhekh asked, grinning. "Get out of this hand, it's no good for you." Shaking his head, he burned a card and placed fourth street on the table. Was Peasant.

Teana looked down at the card for a second. "I'm gonna pass on that one."

Slowly, Akhekh grabbed a stack of yellow chips, taking two off the top and placing eight in the middle, followed by four black ones. "That's the pot."

"The pot," Teana repeated. "So that's four thousand and four hundred? Alright. Well, if I don't match that I won't respect myself in the morning." She grabbed her yellow chip stack.

"Respect is all you'll have left in the morning, girl," Akhekh said, nearly crushing the deck between his fingers. "Fifth street coming."

He burned a card to the side, then slowly flipped over the top card to reveal the Djed God, placing it in the center.

Teana folded her arms in front of her on the table, then glanced up to Akhekh. "Pass."

"Oohh, it hurts, doesn't it?" Akhekh asked, now opening grinning. "I can just tell, you can't believe it. Oh yes, it hurts, doesn't it?"

Teana gave him nothing but a flat expression.

"How does it feel to know your life is over? Your dreams, your hopes, all dashed in an instant. To know that you are mere moments away from becoming my possession. It must be brutal. That God could not have helped you," he growled, grabbing his remaining chip stacks one by and one and tossing them to the middle of the table. "I wager...all of it."

After all of his chips were in the center, Teana just shook her head and gave a small laugh. "You're right, Akhekh. That God didn't help me."

Akhekh grinned and nodded. But then, Teana wrapped her hands around the base of her chip stack and nudged them forward into the pot. Immediately, Akhekh's grin disappeared, and Teana flipped over her cards.

Djed General, Djed Nobleman.

"I've had the run of five ever since third street," she said simply.

Akhekh went bug eyed, looking down at her cards, then at the cards in the center of the table. He stood up, the chair underneath him flying off behind him, and threw the deck down on the table while screaming in a foreign language Teana didn't understand. The deck bounced off the table and whizzed past her ear. She didn't flinch.

"_THAT IS IT! NO MORE!_" Akhekh bellowed, waving his arms around. "_NO MORE!_"

"Are you kidding me?" Aniu replied, standing up and pointing at Teana. "Chill out and take her down already! Take this girl down!"

"_NO!_ No! Not tonight!" he insisted. "No more! This...this bitch, all night, pass, pass, _pass!_ She trapped me!"

Teana just sat there, propping her elbow on the table and placing her chin on her fist. "Satisfied yet? If not, I can go on screwing you all night."

A second later, she felt someone's hand clasp onto her shoulder and start to pick her up off the chair. She spun around and saw the man who was behind the counter lifting her up.

"No! No," Akhekh said, holding his hand out towards him. "No. What are you doing?"

"I'm kicking this bitch to the curb!" the man replied indignantly. "Of course!"

Akhekh sighed, looking around the room. "You can escort her out. After she gets paid." He paused, chewing on his lower lip. "Thirty-three thousand gold debens. In diamonds."

"Boss-" the man began, but was immediately silenced.

"She beat me. She beat me. It was fair," he said darkly. "Pay her. Pay that _woman_ what she won." With that, he slowly turned around and wandered towards the doorway in the corner, disappearing into the hallway and heading up towards his club.

Teana took a deep breath as the man reluctantly let her shoulder go. She closed her eyes, then let a smile come to her face.

"What the hell did I just watch?" Aniu said in wonder, staring at Teana in awe.

"Nothing. You're dreaming right now, it's all an illusion," Teana said, holding her hand out towards Aniu. "You got a knife?"

Quickly, Aniu fumbled with his belt pouch and pulled out a short dagger. He held it out towards her and she took it, sauntering over towards Ramses.

"You're trapping people now? Since when did you get so good?" Ramses asked sarcastically.

Without a word, Teana grabbed the chair Ramses was tied to and started sawing through the rope behind the backrest. The sharp blade worked quickly through the bonds, dropping strands of thick rope to the floor.

"So, uh, it was nice knowing you...thanks for saving my life and giving me...seven thousand gold debens and all. It's appreciated. I'll do my best to make sure we never see each other again."

Teana finished cutting the rope, yanked Ramses out of the chair, and pulled him into a tight hug. "You owe me."

Ramses nodded, returning the hug. "Yup, though it'll be hard to get you back given I'm never going to see you again."

"Forget it," Teana said, squeezing him tighter, fighting back tears. "Forget it."

"Get a damn room," the man behind the counter said gruffly, dropping a sack on the counter. "Take your winnings and scram."

.

"Hey Kafele, ever wonder what thirty three thousand in diamonds looks like?" Teana asked, bursting into the basement area behind section six with the bag clutched inbetween both hands.

"You're kidding me," Kafele said, jumping up from the cushion across the room and running over. "You're not serious, are you?"

"Akhekh's pockets are a little lighter this morning," Teana said airily as Ramses meekly walked into the room, hands in his pockets. "And, with some goading, he might even be willing to join our cause in getting women into card games."

"Holy shit!" Ramses uttered, grabbing the bag and looking inside. "Are they real?"

"Absolutely real. If not, we're gonna have a problem," Teana replied.

"It's the size of a...a toddler's head!" Kafele said in disbelief.

"That's the weirdest measurement system I've ever heard," Teana said, patting Kafele on the head.

"Well that's what it is!" Kafele insisted. "I never thought I'd ever see...this much. It's incredible."

"Well, I think we need to celebrate. Where's Akiiki?" Teana looked around.

"Oh, you," Kafele deadpanned, looking at Ramses. "So, what's social protocol when a person in your group of friends has to borrow seven and a half thousand to get out of debt _and_ almost got one of his friends killed?"

"Borrowed? I don't know what you're talking about." Ramses looked around the room, stretching.

"Fortunately for the dumbass, we need him," Teana said.

"Oh, already scheming?" Kafele asked, raising an eyebrow. "Akiiki is in his hut, guy is worried sick about you. We need to go talk to him. Fill us in when we get there."

.

"I mean, the casino story was...was great, it gave me this warm feeling inside, but...when you left, I'm not gonna lie, I was absolutely terrified." Akiiki patted Teana on the shoulder. "If I wrote a story like this, I'd never get it mass-produced because everyone would say it's just too...unrealistic."

"Reality is unrealistic," Teana said, closing the bag of diamonds back up.

"I'm just happy you're okay," Akiiki said. "I'm even happy this idiot's okay." He pointed at Ramses.

"Oh, thanks for asking, yes, I am fine, now that you mention it." Ramses said loudly. The four of them were standing around in the main room of Akiiki's hut, Teana hugging the diamond sack.

"So. What happens now?" Kafele asked, hands in his pockets. "What's the play?"

"First thing's first," Teana announced, going over to a stool and sitting down on it. "Five thousand of this belongs to Sitto."

"Oh. So that's where it was from," Akiiki said. "Wait, how?"

"I know, it's crazy. Something with her husband, I wasn't really paying attention, I was thinking about escape routes out of the city." Teana pointed at her head and rolled her eyes. "Anyway, that's part one." She paused, looking around the room. "Part two...we'll have to do some research."

"Research what?" Ramses asked.

"Well, we need a couple things." She pointed at Kafele. "It's almost morning, so get down in the basement and spread the word that I've got my finances back up and running. Tell them that I've got a project in mind and it'll take help from everyone in section six. We need to figure out how many people would be on board with this." She turn turned to Akiiki. "You're coming with me. We need to get Sitto her diamonds, and then go into town and find a secure lockup for the rest." She then looked over at Ramses. "And you need to go into town to start looking up information about real estate."

"That doesn't sound like something I'd do," Ramses said, shrugging. "Real estate, not really my speed."

"Well you owe me your life, so...you really probably should," Teana said.

"Okay okay, fine. So what, we'll be even then? What do you mean look up information on real estate?" Ramses put his arms out to his sides. "What does that even mean?"

"Look up what it takes to buy land, build structures on that land, sell properties, how much it costs, how to get supplies, what supplies cost, all that stuff." Teana pointed towards the hut door. "Use your contacts, ask around, do some reading, whatever, we're gonna need to know all this stuff."

"Wait, what's going on?" Akiiki asked. "Real estate? What?"

"Well, the way I see things, gentlemen, the entire problem here is that, in order for us to actually attempt to achieve greatness, we have to risk losing everything. So, we need to come up with an alternative." She grabbed Akiiki's wrist and pulled him towards the door. "Details later, we need to move on this now."

.

"Holy crap," Akiiki said, looking around the large, open expanse of sand in the middle of the city, set up between two large structures. "You own this now?"

"Yeah," Teana muttered, putting her hands on her hips and looking around at the land. "It only cost a grand and a half. That guy was right, land is cheap right now."

"Which guy?" Kafele asked.

"N-nevermind." Teana shook her head. "So, everything's coming together."

"Cool. We have a big patch of sand," Ramses said. "Awesome, just what I always wanted."

"And air. Don't forget the air, I assume that's ours too." Akiiki added.

"So what's going on here? Are we building a house? For you?" Ramses asked. "That's a little vain. Don't get me wrong, I like it, but I wouldn't have-"

"Guys," Teana said, motioning around with her hands as she spoke. "It's simple. We need a dependable way to make gold that isn't cards. If we don't establish that, we'll be trapped in a cycle of gaining and losing forever. So, solution! We're buying land, building structures, and selling it."

"Okay, that's cool," Ramses said dryly. "So if we all work...non-stop for five years, we should be able to finish the first floor. Let's get to it!"

"You guys are stupid. Like, really," Teana groaned. "Anyway, land is cheap right now, and it's not too bad to acquire tools and materials. The problem with real estate is getting people to build the structures. You have to pay them, they work slow, they complain, they fight...it's the obstacle everyone in real estate has to deal with. Luckily for me, I happen to know over a hundred people who either don't have a job or hate their job, and are eternally indebted to me, most of whom have already agreed to assist me as long as I make sure their expenses are covered."

"That's good," Kafele admitted. "I like that. It makes sense. It's like a business."

"It is a business," Teana said. As she spoke, a dozen people hustled onto the land patch, coming in groups of four and each of them helping push a large chariot full of materials and tools. "I got a tip at that party. Real estate is where it's at right now. Especially if you can get a good workforce together."

"Okay, okay!" Akiiki said gleefully, clapping his hands together. "You've really thought this out. Wow, this is happening, I'm part of a business!"

"Ramses," Teana said. "As a woman, I can't be the official head of a business, so that title goes to you. You're in charge of running things as far as Egypt is concerned."

"Excellent," Ramses deadpanned. "Finally, a chance to use my expansive education."

"Don't worry, it's not going to be hard. You probably won't have to do anything. So it's right up your alley." Teana cleared her throat. "I'm currently four thousand into this project, and house prices are high right now because of the population boom, so my calculations say we'll be profitable immediately. We'll expand when it's appropriate. Should be very fruitful."

"Do cards get involved in this plan anytime soon? Because that's sort of my forte," Ramses said, shrugging. "Running a real estate business, not really my thing."

"Of course," Teana said, nodding. "Me, Akiiki and Kafele will run our game like usual, you'll do your things, and now we have a backup plan in case we lose big."

"Oh, you're gonna let me seed myself from your reserves?" Ramses said. "Cool. I was gonna ask Akhekh for a loan, but I guess this is a little better."

Teana punched Ramses in the shoulder lightly, then smiled. "I think Akhekh would prefer never to see either of us again. So, anyway, we started at twenty eight thousand gold debens. In...two moon cycles, if you combine what we gain at cards and what the real estate end produces, I really think we should be up around seventy grand."

"That's pretty sweet," Kafele said, nodding and smirking. "Sounds reasonable too."

"Oh come on, Teana," Ramses said, folding his arms over his chest. "You got burned once, doesn't mean it's a bad idea to give the big table another whirl. You could get up to seventy grand in half a moon cycle if you're aggressive!"

"Oh don't worry. I've moved past the big table. I'm taking a seat at the big, big table. I'm taking another shot at the big time, you don't worry about that."

Slowly, as several dozen others showed up, the materials on the carts were unloaded by the workers.

"That's more like it," Ramses said. "What's up?"

"Well," Teana said, reaching into her robe pouch and pulling out a sheet of parchment. "It would appear that our dear Prince Atem has finally managed to schedule the card tournament to end all card tournaments." She unfolded it and showed it to the three young men.

_FIRST ANNUAL TOURNAMENT OF CARDS_

_FIVE DAY FESTIVAL, DOZENS OF TABLES OF NONSTOP CARD ACTION_

_EVENT ENDS WITH HUNDRED PLAYER TOURNAMENT, WINNER CROWNED GREATEST CARD PLAYER IN ALL THE WORLD_

"The event is precisely two moon cycles away," Teana explained, handing the parchment to Akiiki. "It's going to be incredible. It's going to be open participation to anyone who has enough gold, and the action will never stop and the players can just choose to sleep when they want to. Five straight days of nothing but cards across dozens, maybe hundreds, of tables!"

Akiiki gave a low whistle. "Now that is a fine piece of work by the future Pharaoh."

"I managed to sweet-talk a few people in the know, and here's how it works," Teana said, grinning. "Day one, tables have a minimum one thousand deben buy-in, maximum two-thousand. Raises anywhere from ten-twenty to twenty-fourty. Day two, they bump it. Minimum buy-in is two thousand, maximum is three and a half, raises go from twenty-fourty to fourty-eighty. Day three, bumps up again. Minimum buy-in is four, maximum buy-in is six, raises are from fourty-eighty to fifty-hundred. You can jump from table to table as often as you want, play one table until you take all the chips and then go to another, whatever you feel like. And it never stops!"

"The whole Egyptian army couldn't keep me from that," Kafele said. "Now that's an event."

"The best part is next." Teana leaned in towards her friends. "Day four. Hundred person tournament. Ten tables, each table with ten players. Buy-in is exactly ten thousand for everyone, game is no-limit, and ends only when one player has all of it."

"Someone walks away with a hundred thousand gold debens," Akiiki muttered. "That's insane."

"But, that isn't the end," Teana whispered. "Day five. Each winner of the tables in day four is forced to compete at the final table, and has to post their entire hundred thousand deben win as the buy-in! No-limit, winner-take-all."

"That's...that's a thousand thousand to the winner!" Kafele responded, looking around in wonder. "I can't even imagine that."

"It's a million gold debens. The winner goes home with seven figures, a nice trophy, and a bracelet identifying them as a tournament winner and the greatest card player in the world. And that, my friends, is the true big table. And the table I will be sitting at." Teana raised her eyebrows suggestively.

"You've outdone yourself with this one," Akiiki said, impressed. "You've discovered the means to reasonably make a lot of gold in a short timespan and you have backup plans in the event that you lose it all." He nodded. "One problem, though."

"Whatever it is, I assure you, I've thought of it," Teana said, sure of herself.

"You're still a woman," Akiiki pointed out. "I really don't see you getting into that tournament." He shrugged. "Sorry. It's one thing in the back corner of a bar or restaurant, but with the whole world watching?"

"Well, nothing is guaranteed." Teana looked up at the sky. "But, there's no law forbidding it."

"Unwritten laws are often just as binding," Ramses reminded her.

"True, true." Teana nodded. "But, when it comes time to put your name down for the tournament, I'm going to walk in there with fifty thousand gold debens worth of diamonds. I'm going to slap it down on the counter, point at it, and tell the tournament officials that I'll be bringing that into the tournament. Fifty thousand gold debens worth of chips flying around in their event. Maybe I am a woman, but their decision is going to be for something else. Either they will have my fifty thousand in their tournament, or they won't. We'll see what they decide, but I feel okay about it."

Kafele chuckled to himself. "Man...a million debens, I still can't get my head around that."

"You know, no guarantees, but...I'm good enough to sit at that table. I know that much." Teana nodded. "I can sit at that table with all the best players in the world. I can."

"Now that's the attitude I like to hear!" Ramses said, clapping her on the back.

"And, if I do win the tournament, my newfound wealth and fame would most certainly be worthy of a mate of particular...Princely status," Teana finished, smiling to herself.

"So you'd be winning a trophy statue and a trophy husband," Akiiki said. "Very nice."

"So, gentlemen, that is the plan, adjust yourselves accordingly." She bowed to the three. "I must mingle with my new employees!"

She turned around and walked towards the several dozen workers, already beginning the process of setting up a worksite.

"Hey, Ptah, glad you could make it," she called out, putting her hand up on a young man's shoulder standing next to a cart of bricks.

"Yeah, you know, I got no idea what I'm doing, I hope someone does," Ptah said uneasily.

"Oh, we've got people here who know construction," Teana said comfortingly. "Here, let's go find one."

_One million gold debens. A trophy. A bracelet. The best card player in the world title. And enough fame and fortune to even impress a Prince. It's a hell of a reward._

_Does it have my name on it? I don't know. But I'm going to go find out._

.

THE END

That concludes my story. I hope you enjoyed reading it.

You may notice I have left things open for a sequel, although at this time I am undecided on whether or not I want to write one. If you would like to see one, please let me know, and I will take it under consideration.

Thank you for reading.


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